Software as a Service [SaaS]

A company that offers individuals or enterprises access over a network, most typically the Internet in the case of cloud or SaaS software, to applications and related services that would otherwise have to be located in their own personal or enterprise computers.

An arrangement that provides protection to the business should the software provider go out of business or discontinue support and/or maintenance for the licensed software. In the event of such an occurrence, the licensee gets the source code of the software. This may be more important in a SaaS or cloud environment where, if the software vendor goes out of business, the data may be lost as well.

The approach taken to “deliver” enterprise software. It is usually used when referring to a software application. There are three primary delivery models for enterprise software: (1) licensed on-premise model in which a customer purchases software and owns it; (2) SaaS or “Software as a Service” model in which the customer “rents” the software, and the supplier runs and updates the software, providing the software as a service offering rather than as a product; and, (3) hosted model in which a customer purchases or leases the software, and a third party runs the software for that customer. Many customers use a “hybrid” approach, a combination of on-premise solutions and cloud or SaaS.

A thin client is a networked computer with few locally stored programs and a heavy dependence on network resources. Thin clients rely on a network connection to a central server for full computing and don't do much processing on the hardware itself. A thin client is often sufficient enough to connect to the network and access a SaaS/cloud system.