Tech Guest Viewpoint: Is Your Cloud App ‘Saas-querading’?

While Mardi Gras celebrations ended earlier this spring, there are many software vendors that still have the Mardi Gras masks on as they pretend their cloud apps are SaaS – they are “SaaSquerading”(phrase coined by blogger Brian Sommer). There is a distinct difference between cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) and it’s important for professionals to know why the difference matters.



SaaS is a comprehensive, full-blown application that does not require any additional components or administration and does not sit on your machines. Furthermore, the application is not running on servers and using data storage in your data center; it is running in the vendor's data center or hosting facility.



The way SaaS applications are licensed is different from on premise applications. Instead of buying the license to use the application, and then paying for software maintenance to support it and keep it current, you "rent" the software over a period of time – usually monthly or yearly. The SaaS vendor runs the application on their infrastructure so you don’t buy and install the infrastructure and then pay ongoing operating and maintenance costs. The cost of the SaaS application covers the costs of the software itself and the ongoing operations and infrastructure costs.



When you run a SaaS application, you generally log into your vendor's website and you are on. You can say that SaaS applications are running "in the cloud," and you would be correct. But SaaS applications are not the cloud.



So what is "the cloud?" Cloud computing provides computing resources that are not tied to any specific location. Cloud computing basically consists of virtual computers/servers, data storage capacity, communications, messaging capacity, network capacity, and development environments.



In other words, cloud computing is for software developers, legacy application vendors, savvy computer users, and corporate IT departments, not for people who use computer applications.



Cloud-based or cloud computing approaches by legacy providers (SaaSqueraders) are typically first generation Web designed so they can have eight or more layers that create numerous issues.

John Orr is senior VP of retail strategy and execution, Ceridian.