Is Salesforce a SaaS or PaaS?-Understanding the Cloud Model
Salesforce is a leading CRM software and is considered one for a long time now. It is software for customer relationship management, providing a variety of services for the same purpose, hence acting like Software as a Service (SaaS).
But with force.com, a part of Salesforce that acts as a platform for users to create and deploy apps like a Platform as a Service (PaaS), it has been under scrutiny with inconclusivity whether it shall be considered as a SaaS or PaaS.
WHAT IS SaaS (SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE)?
Software as a Service is a product that we download in our system, and it contains a variety of services to fulfill the needs of operations of a business, hence the name, software as a service. And the biggest example is cloud computing or Salesforce.
SaaS proves to be a great option for data storage and management as it saves businesses from hardware costs and storage thereof, with its feature of maintaining data on a server of software providers.
Since SaaS does not require any physical buying of the updated software and its installation, and the risk of losing data between transfers or under any cyber attack, the business becomes more efficient as a lot of time and energy is saved with access to data and its management while the updation is in progress.
WHAT IS PaaS (PLATFORM AS A SERVICE)?
Platform as a Service or PaaS is a platform that enables businesses to build and deploy apps with the convenience of not having to maintain servers, upgrades, etc. with the facility of securing their data.
The in-built tools, environments, and servers allow businesses to create the apps efficiently without incurring the costs to create the said tools from scratch.
Without any infrastructure issues and problems, businesses can make apps faster than ever.
FEATURES OF A GOOD SaaS AND PaaS-KEY POINTS
WHY SALESFORCE IS A SaaS?
The following arguments or points are similar between Salesforce and a SaaS that make it possible for us to say that Salesforce is a SaaS:
SCALABILITY
Like a SaaS, Salesforce is adaptable to not only the management but to every employee of the organization.
EASY ADAPTATION
The knowledge of Salesforce like any other SaaS requires training and documentation of the personnel and hence it is convenient for new users to become onboard with its services.
EVOLUTION AND UPDATES
Salesforce ensures simultaneous updates while the software is up and running on a real-time basis so that the business does not face any obstacles in operations.
DATA ACCESS
Salesforce provides data to the personnel in real-time and hence they have access to the updated data the whole time.
SECURITY
Salesforce’s data encryption and management ensure the data is not lost and is well maintained while being secure from cyber attacks.
ANALYTICS AND REPORTING
Salesforce after the analysis of the data present provides a detailed insight and report for determining the performance of the business and the personnel.
WHY SALESFORCE IS A PaaS?
EASY INTEGRATION
Salesforce proves to be an easy platform for integration with other platforms so that the users can work efficiently with access to each one of them.
REAL-TIME INFORMATION
It enables developers can connect with their managers in real-time and gain feedback to make the process more efficient.
EASY MAINTENANCE
Like a PaaS, the platform force.com Is looked upon by a vendor i.e. Salesforce so the users need not worry about the maintenance of the servers and look after their apps only.
CONCLUSION
From the above analysis, we can determine that Salesforce is both a Service and a Platform, as Force.com which is itself a PaaS, is a part of Salesforce that operates as the platform for app creation and deployment.
Some may consider Salesforce as an IaaS too, and that can be said too as Salesforce and force.com facilitates the deployment of enterprise systems on the Internet completely and manages servers and data for the users.