The offerings of Software-as-a-Service or SaaS are expanding and gaining more acceptance globally. With SaaS, business owners have gotten rid of the tedious task of deploying and monitoring the enterprise software, and application or software downtime that occurs because of performance issues.
Currently, many vendors are offering proprietary SaaS platforms where more and more applications are hosted in a Software as a Service business model.
If you are planning to invest in a SaaS hosting service, you should consider factors like scalability, flexibility, bandwidth, and security beforehand. The right hosting provider can help you grow, and on the contrary, a wrong choice can hinder the long-term success of your company.
A Standard SaaS Scenario
There are three roles in a SaaS environment – the customer, the SaaS provider, and the SaaS application vendor.
- The Customer: The SaaS customer is that company or person who wants to use software to fulfill a certain task and subscribes to a SaaS platform.
- The SaaS Provider: The software as a service is sold or offered by the SaaS providers. They run the software to which the SaaS customers can subscribe.
- The SaaS Application Vendor: The SaaS application vendors are those companies who develop the applications to offer as a service by SaaS providers.
The Significance Of A SaaS Hosting Provider
A cloud delivery model is used in SaaS. A SaaS hosting provider either hosts the application and related data using its databases, servers, networking, and computing resources, or it can be an independent software vendor or ISV which communicates with a cloud provider to host the application in the data center of the provider.
The SaaS hosting provider must offer some essential features:
- Availability: The SaaS hosting solution must be able to ensure good uptime and reliability.
- Usability: The users should find the SaaS environment user-friendly. They will move to your competitors if they find it difficult to use.
- Analytics: The SaaS hosting provider should offer real-time metrics to analyze the usage and behavior within the hosting environment.
Here are 5 very crucial tips that you should consider while choosing a SaaS hosting provider:
1. Your SaaS Business Needs
Your business has its own unique needs. For this reason, you should choose a hosting solution for your business that can fulfill your business needs. To start with, you should determine the resources that you need to run your SaaS application. The most important factors to decide are your expected monthly traffic, storage needs, and bandwidth usage. Some of the other services you will need:
- Automated server backups
- Timely server administration and management
- Adequate cloud storage space
- Virtual private network
- DDoS protection
- Content management systems
You need to balance your pricing points with your business capabilities. Cost-effective scalability is also another important point to be considered. In case your business grows in a short period, your hosting provider must support your growth by adding computing resources to SaaS. For this reason, consider the pricing structure of your SaaS provider on these terms.
MilesWeb is one of the best web hosts that provides all the important features along with an affordable pricing structure. The best part is – you get enough room to grow with scalable hosting solutions. What you get is a robust hosting platform for hosting your SaaS applications.
Related: SaaS vs. Cloud Solutions: Essential Parts Of Digital Transformation
2. Scalability & Performance
Scalability and performance are the two most important factors you should consider while choosing the right SaaS hosting. These are the key attributes to confirm how reliable and fast the SaaS network is. Your chosen SaaS hosting provider should have multiple data centers spread all over the globe to add scalability to your company. This is how your business and users will enjoy quick access to your application. If your business gets high traffic on a monthly or daily basis, you need dedicated resources added by your SaaS hosting provider to serve your users with fewer costs.
So, scalable SaaS resources will be a necessity to grow your business. It is needless to say that the one-size-fits-all approach will not work in this case as your business has unique needs. Your SaaS hosting provider should offer a hybrid and custom solution.
3. Security & Privacy
Data privacy is a top concern for business owners who use SaaS to host their applications. Cyber threats towards your application on SaaS are a little different from those associated with traditional software. In the case of traditional software, the software vendor is responsible for eliminating cyber threats. Here, the user is responsible to run the software on a secure network and infrastructure, but in a SaaS environment, the service providers and their customers both are responsible to ensure data security.
You should expect at least three measures taken by your SaaS hosting provider to secure your data.
- Infrastructure: To confirm higher security, your hosting provider must ensure that every point of connection between providers is correctly initiated and consistently maintained.
- Network: Network security ensures that whenever someone accesses your software in SaaS, that connection is secure. You can consult security consultants to review this factor.
- Application & Software: SaaS security features must ensure that your hosted application and software are not vulnerable to security threats.
Related: Customer Services Best Practices Inspired By The SaaS Technology
4. Service Level Agreement
Your business is online with the service of a SaaS hosting provider. This means a slight interruption in your service can lead your customers to abandon your site, as a result, you will lose users and sales. An SLA or service level agreement is necessary to avert all future mishappenings on the SaaS platform. Make sure that the agreement states all your necessities, demands, and needs to be required from your SaaS hosting provider. A proper agreement will ensure the right mechanisms are placed by your SaaS provider in case of downtime faced by your visitors. Other needs of your business will be also mentioned in that agreement; like:
- Higher uptime guarantee – 99% offered by your vendor
- Dedicated and reliable on-site security – 24×7; 365 days a week
- 24/7 reliable support availability from SaaS hosting provider
- Proper documentation and support
- Specific penalties as compensation during downtime or failure
- Accurate analytical tools to deliver the reports on the performance metrics
- Custom solutions when needed
5. Budget Consideration
One final factor is still left to consider – the amount you can spend to pay the bills of your SaaS hosting provider. Some decisions on your side can help you to minimize the expenses; like:
- Restructure your business needs and demands if you have less budget.
- If your startup has not reached the break down point yet, you can find a SaaS hosting provider who offers a cost-effective solution.
Some Important Suggestions To Consider
At any moment, SaaS can experience some challenges and risks like issues beyond customer control, your valued customers losing control over your application after your SaaS provider releases a new application, and customers facing huge difficulty during switching SaaS hosting providers or vendors. The tips mentioned in this article will help you to stay on the safe side. However, the story doesn’t end here. As a customer of SaaS, you should keep some other factors in your mind.
Your SaaS hosting provider should be reputed and must have enough experience in implementing hosting services without any failure like higher downtime. The provider must have a successful track record of serving happy customers in the past. Following the social media trends and reviews of SaaS customers there can help you to find a genuine SaaS hosting provider.
Your SaaS hosting provider must be technically competent enough to ensure the proper scalability of your company. Check which technologies are being used by your SaaS hosting provider, and also keep in mind your future technical requirements.
Any business should follow the necessary compliances. That’s why your SaaS hosting provider should be equipped with all the necessary certifications, like PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and others.
Related: Open Source Ecommerce Vs. SaaS Ecommerce: Which Is Right For Your Business?
Conclusion
SaaS has already outperformed the traditional on-premise software hosting models. No doubt you can choose SaaS to add growth, profitability, and expansion to your application; but, choosing the right SaaS hosting provider can be a challenging task. SaaS hosting market is a competitive field. Many service providers are offering lucrative discounts to get you as a customer. Before you execute your hosting, you must review the mentioned tips in this article in your mind.
