- By Admin
- August 25, 2017
- Digital Marketing, Online Marketing
Cloud computing is essential if you want to advance your business in digital marketing. From online mobility, versatile capacity to budget-friendly storage, there’s plenty of reasons why more and more businesses are integrating cloud services into their company.
One of the main branches of cloud computing is SaaS. SaaS stands for Software As A Service. It’s changed the way businesses use software in the workplace. While this revolutionary system is a common buzzword in digital marketing, it’s a modern concept that can often be misunderstood. Here we have answered the most commonly asked questions about SaaS so you can get a better on how the cloud service works:
What Is Software As A Service?
Software as a service is a software distribution method. SaaS lets you use applications over the internet. The software is owned, delivered and managed remotely by a third-party provider.
How is SaaS going to help my business?
SaaS saves you money on the expenses of in-house programs. This includes installing, maintaining and upgrading on-premise services. By utilising software as a service, your business doesn’t have to manually install and run applications on your own computer or data centre. Instead, a third party provider will handle your software so you don’t have to.
Do I still own my data?
Ultimately you own your data. While your provider may give you access to cloud software where your data is stored that’s as much control your provider has over it. Your data is yours to use and keep despite being stored externally rather than internally.
How secure is my data?
The safety of your data is all up to your Saas provider. A reliable provider will provide basics like password-protection, user controls that limit access to sensitive data, as well as data encryption. Typically SaaS providers can invest more in security, backup maintenance than most small to medium businesses, so data is safer with their web-based system rather than on-premise data centers.
What happens if my provider can’t service me anymore?
The digital world is constantly changing. So software providers often come and go. Whether there has been a business failure or the software is simply no longer available your data is still safe and yours to retrieve and keep. Check the contract or service level agreement (SLA) you have with your provider. The SLA should clearly state that you can export your data. This is a standard practice in SaaS providers.
What happens if my business expands?
Depending on the software you are using you will easily be able to upgrade your SaaS. You will have subscription or provider options so your SaaS can be used by everyone on your growing team. Because the software is handled by the third party provider, you don’t have to worry about buying and licensing for every new employee. Instead, you simply have to upgrade your SaaS subscription.
How much control do I have over SaaS?
Businesses adapted to a SaaS user interface when it first emerged. As technology has advanced some SaaS can now be customisable. Custom SaaS gives you more control over the look and feel of a program, alter the UI and even change specific areas like data fields and what data appears. While it may not have the same customisable flexibility as on-premise systems, as SaaS grows so would your ability to completely customise it to fit your business.
