5 Things Every SaaS Company Needs To Know
Software as a service, you probably used one today without even noticing it. The more notable ones being Google, Adobe, Microsoft, the big dogs of the world.
SaaS (software as a service) has worked its way into our lives and is now something we can’t live without.
Because we use this everyday, we feel that we should know more about the industry. So here are the top 8 things that you didn’t know about the Saas industry.
History of SaaS
The idea for SaaS has been around for a while. In the 60s, the computational power of SaaS was being used for private organizations only. This was because the computing was expensive and time consuming and only private organizations had the resources to keep it running.
Fast forward a couple decades and technology has improved at a rapid rate. Now we’re in the 90s, computing has become quicker, cheaper, and more portable.
This is where Marc Beinoff and Parker Harris come into play. In 1999, these two geniuses created the first SaaS company, Salesforce! Safe to say they were the fastest growing SaaS company of their time.
They offered traditional enterprise solutions such as CRM (customer relationship management) through a SaaS model and spearheaded the industry that we know and love today.
Who owns my SaaS data?
So, your data is floating around in the cloud and you want to know who owns it.
You’ll be happy to know that YOU own your SaaS data. Majority of the time, you can find all of the details in the service level agreement (SLA), where it states your ownership rights and rights to retrieve the data.
Even better, most contracts allow you to retrieve your data even if the SaaS company goes out of business.
When reviewing the service level agreement, make sure to look over
- Your responsibilities as a client
- The responsibilities of the software vendor
- Guarantees of service
Just make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before you sign up.
Is my data safe in the cloud
As we previously stated, your data is floating around in the ether that we know as the cloud. This can be a scary feeling, because it feels like at any moment your data could be snatched from the cloud.
Thankfully, your data is very safe in the cloud. The majority of SaaS companies use high security public cloud services to store your data, so you can sleep at night.
The real issue lies within the security of the SaaS company. Leaks within the company are more common due to disgruntled employees or lack of budget for IT security.
SaaS companies know that this is top-of-mind for most clients, so they offer regular server updates showing the security of their data. Do this to build trust with your clients, and become one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the industry.
What is the cloud
Now that we talked a little about how your data is protected in the cloud, we think it’s important to understand what the cloud is.
The cloud refers to all of the things you can access remotely on the internet.
If you really want to dive into detail, the cloud is all the servers you can access over the internet, with all of the software and data that run on those servers.
The cloud is great, because it gives you access to the same files and data across all of your platforms. This is because all of your data is stored in a data center, which can be accessed anywhere.
The reason the cloud is able to do this is because of a cool thing called virtualization. I’ll make an analogy so I don’t bore you with the inner workings of virtualization.
Imagine your data is stored in a virtual computer. That virtual computer is sandboxed from other virtual computers, so your data cannot be viewed by anyone else.
This keeps your data secure to you and everyone else’s data separate in the data center.
SaaS vs. The Cloud
Long story short, the cloud is every software as a service, but software as a service is not the cloud.
This is because the cloud encapsulates all softwares across the internet. If you require an internet connection to run anything, then it is cloud-based.
SaaS is a component of cloud computing. There are three components of cloud-based computing
- SaaS – Software as a service
- PaaS – Platform as a service
- IaaS – Infrastructure as a service
SaaS has many online applications, such as reputation management, CRM (customer relationship management), or email marketing automation. There are many benefits to using a SaaS program. Some of these include
- High return on investment
- Sharing of data is synchronized and seamless across your whole network
- Data is secure
- Updates are automatic and don’t take up your time
By building value within a company through avenues such as these, you can achieve great success and become one of the fastest growing SaaS companies.
Wrapping Up
SaaS is here to stay and can help your business achieve new heights!
If you’re looking to boost your online presence and generate massive exposure for your business, using reputation management software is the way to go.
To learn about how DAP can help grow, manage, and market your online presence, click here!