With that in mind, I just thought I would share a little about SaaS and some elementary forms of it out there which we may or may-not use today.

What is SaaS?

The simple bit – Software as a Service is a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand.

The bit more in-depth bit – SaaS software vendors may host the application on their own web servers or download the application to the consumer device, disabling it after use or after the on-demand contract expires. The on-demand function may be handled internally to share licenses within a firm or by a third-party application service provider (ASP) sharing licenses between firms.

Basically - You don’t own the software or application, you don’t maintain it, service it, patch it, back it up, and you don’t tend to install it or use it locally to your network or machine – you just rent the rights to use it, usually via a web-browser or a small client installed on your machine – easy!

The positives of SaaS:

Cost - no huge up-front server and application infrastructure costs, instead a low monthly subscription.
Time - deployment is a lot quicker when you don’t have to build and test a system.
Maintenance – the SaaS provider does this for you!
Support - again, the SaaS provider does this for you!
Backup & Restore – usually, again, the SaaS provider does this for you!
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity – included - SaaS providers host these applications in multiple secure data-centres all over the world – so you can be assured of near 100% uptime and as long as you have internet, you can access your data or application.

…and much, much more such as centralisation, typically more software and application features, lower cost of ownership…

The drawbacks of SaaS:

Internet - Since SaaS utilises the internet, you must ensure that yours is robust and stable, and consider multiple SLA-bound internet circuits (such as Leased Lines or Ethernet Circuits with some auto-failover (ISDN / ADSL / 3G as an example).

Have I been using SaaS without realising?

Probably certainly yes! If you work in an office, your email may be provided to you (for example hosted Exchange), perhaps your financial and ERP system (SAP), or even your CRM system could be on-line (such as Salesforce.com).

On a domestic & home-user level, if you use GoogleDocs – a popular system for storing your files “in the cloud” – this file store system could be classed as SaaS, and I’m sure it won’t be too long until a few of us will adopt the Microsoft Online packages instead of downloading software to our home machines.

SaaS is a great way for products, services and applications to follow YOU, the user, rather than the traditional method of being dedicated to devices which may never be fully utilised. The idea is to give you trouble-free, zero maintenance access wherever you are, and I’m sure it won’t be long (5-10 years) until we all end up paying for our IT service on a cost-per-use basis, both work and home, just like we buy our electric and gas.

Darren

Why comply – its a legal requirement
Keeping the information you have about your customers secure will help protect your and their information. It could also protect you against claims for damages

Good business sense
Sending out a mailing from incorrect or out-of-date records could not only annoy your customers but also wastes your time and money

Good information handling can improve your business’s reputation by increasing customer and employee confidence in you

The eight data protection principles of good information handling say that personal information
must be:

• Fairly and lawfully processed
• Processed for specified purposes
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• Not kept for longer than is necessary
• Processed in line with the rights of the individual
• Kept secure
• Not transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area unless the information is adequately protected.

Its very easy to adhere to these basic principles if you secure your data by:

Physical Security – Ensure good secure locations for your IT equipment and secure your building.
Passwords – Long, strong, with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, symbols, etc – e.g. P@5sw0rd instead of password.
Software Security – Keep your operating system (Windows) and applications are all patched and up to date.
Gateway Security – This means Firewall – get a good one to keep the badies out – I recommend SonicWALL
Secure Wireless – Do you need it? If so use strong WPA2 encryption, hide the SSID, lock it down.
Email Compliance – Filter and check emails – ensure no-one is sending out secure information.
Restrict Access & Information – Limit peoples access to information – if they can’t see it they can’t leak it!
Backup & Restore – Ensure you securely back your data regally up and you can recover it – don’t leave your backups in an unsecured location!
Encryption – If you have a laptop its highly stealable and you’re also likely to leave it on a train my mistake (this happens to Government and the public sector all the time), so encrypt it!

And after all this, if you are in doubt, speak to some experts.