Midlands Data Center and SaaS
By Top10SEO
This hub introduces company IT Management, Directors and The Board to the concept of Software as a Service (SaaS), explaining how and why software houses are adopting it as a business and supply strategy. It also introduces the SaaS Hotel™ brand from 1st Easy — its architecture and how it can help support and benefit software companies that have adopted or plan to adopt a SaaS delivery strategy.
The trend towards Software as a Service (SaaS)
Your software business has traditionally sold products "in a box", as one-off sales. The key problem arising from this model is that as competition increases, pricing is driven down and sales counters revert to zero with each month. As a result, companies such as yours face increasing challenges to both grow and fund the continued development of application.
With the emergence of the commercial Internet, leading software vendors are adopting a "Software as a Service" (SaaS) deployment model where applications are accessed online via a web browser, as opposed to via physical formats such as boxed DVDs which are installed on the end-user’s desktop. The SaaS model introduces the idea of subscription based services, where access is rented and new features are instantly made available to users. For the vendor, this results in recurring monthly incomes from software, cost-effective worldwide deployment and a revenue platform for both growth and reinvestment into application development. Of equal importance in a competitive market, customers benefit from instant fulfilment and a better experience, including factors such as improved security, reliability and anytime-anywhere access.
Key SaaS direction business drivers
Need for growth of company income requires a revenue platform that is stable and increasing year on year; monthly or annual SaaS subscription incomes provide this foundation.
Software development costs are increasing as application security and Need for improving global distribution of applications, best done by making applications Internet compatible. The Internet has become the distribution agent for SaaS.
Need for upgrade efficiencies, not available through the software in a box distribution model, but easily possible through centralised SaaS delivery.
Need to better control license security and ensure end-users adopting applications pay associated license fees. Again, SaaS ensures total centralised control of license usage.
Key SaaS success factors
The success of a SaaS model extends beyond the application layer itself (quality, value, functionality, security, performance etc.) and is equally reliant on the underpinning Internet infrastructure (data centres, networking, security, and server platforms).
Such components can be graded in terms of reliability, performance and global reach:
Enterprise-class datacentres with 24/7/365 technical support and high
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on power, networks and cooling.
High availability, fast and reliable bandwidth (IP transit) in the required volumes.
High performance servers on which applications are powered. Comprehensive physical security measures at the datacentre (24/7/365 on-site guards, access control systems, fire suppression etc.) and digital security at the network border/network application layers, to ensure applications and customer data are well protected.
Remote backup datacentres with cost effective private network Global inter-connected datacentres and relationships, in order to deploy applications closest to the end-user (minimised latency), handle currency and customs differences and deliver the best possible experience to the end user of the applications themselves.
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