Deciding where to host your business’ technology infrastructure can have a huge impact on your company’s trajectory. Choosing the right environment can lower costs, lower maintenance costs, increase responsiveness, provide better options for scaling, and more.
Today, most businesses are trying to choose between hosting in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud or in an IaaS-like (Infra Structure-as-a-Service) environment. Both can be good options for certain companies. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of both approaches to see which one is best suited for your business.
What is SaaS?
SaaSor Software-as-a-Service, has grown in popularity over the past decade and is now the fastest growing software segment overall.
Users can access SaaS applications over the web, but they are typically not responsible for any part of the software stack. SaaS providers maintain all the necessary software, middleware, and hardware end-to-end.
This means that SaaS apps can significantly reduce maintenance costs, but it also limits the number of customizations available to businesses using them.
Here are some well-known SaaS examples.
- microsoft 365
- adobe creative cloud
- slack
- Shopify
- hubspot
- Zilla
- Asana
- zendesk
Key benefits of SaaS apps
The main reason why SaaS applications are becoming more popular today is because they offer quick and easy solutions.
For SaaS apps, costs are linear and predictable. Since there are no hardware-related maintenance costs (such as purchasing and managing servers), he typically does not need to hire IT staff.
At the same time, SaaS apps require little training and teams can start using them right away. SaaS vendors also ensure app scalability, so you don’t have to plan for growth (or downshifting) in advance. Most companies pay for their SaaS solutions on a per-seat basis, making it easy to add or remove seats as needed.
Common disadvantages of SaaS apps
While SaaS applications have many benefits and most businesses use at least some SaaS solutions to cover specific needs, they are not the right answer for everything.
Most SaaS tools have some drawbacks.
The first is cost. Most SaaS solutions are cost-effective with just a few licenses compared to investing in your own infrastructure, but paying per user can be more costly than maintaining a common server. There is a point. As your business grows, paying for many SaaS tools can become less and less attractive.
The second drawback is that you can customize your environment. In most cases, you can make cosmetic changes to the interface and user experience, but you cannot create new functionality or change the basic functionality of your SaaS app.
So, if maintaining your own servers is cumbersome and expensive, and working with SaaS has its limitations and can cost you even more as you grow, are there other solutions your business can rely on? Is not it?
What about the host environment?
What is a hosted environment?
host environmentAlso known as IaaS or Infrastructure-as-a-Service, it bridges the gap between on-premises hardware and SaaS.
IaaS providers remove all the complexity associated with managing networks, storage, server hardware, and operating systems. At the same time, customers have the freedom to manage their own applications, data, and software platforms.
In a hosted environment, businesses pay only for the resources they use (bandwidth, storage, etc.) on a pay-as-you-go basis. This ensures scalability with low initial costs, even for large-scale deployments.
An example host environment is:
- liquid web
- digital ocean
- microsoft azure
- AWS EC2
- google cloud
- linode
Key benefits of hosted environments
These days, more and more companies are recognizing the value of IaaS over both on-premises servers and SaaS apps.
Unlike on-premises hardware, hosted environments do not require large upfront investments (and subsequent reinvestments). It also eliminates the need for server IT staff. At the same time, IaaS offers superior performance and control over all important aspects of the technology stack.
When it comes to SaaS, hosted environments offer better customization options. You can install and operate complex proprietary applications, and typically set up a custom environment that’s perfect for your company.
Common disadvantages of hosted environments
Depending on your organization’s needs, the trade-off between greater customization and greater responsibility for security and compliance may or may not work for you.
In an IaaS environment, the provider is responsible for all the server hardware, but the provider is still responsible for the runtime of the service.
IT costs are generally lower with IaaS than with on-premises servers, but depending on the size of your business, they can be higher than with SaaS, especially if you include indirect costs.
How to choose the best environment for your company
If you’re trying to choose the right environment for your current business, the answer depends on your needs and the stage of your company.
On-premises hardware is not a good option for most businesses due to the increased cost and complexity unless the business is directly involved in managing the servers.
You may use various SaaS environments (chat, collaborative documents, etc.) in your day-to-day operations, but moving your entire business to a SaaS environment can be costly and cost-limiting in the long run. there is. Customization options.
IaaS solutions offer a good balance between price, power, and freedom to develop your own products. Get the best performing private cloud for building highly available environments.
Still have questions about the difference between SaaS and hosted environments? Let us help you. Contact Liquid Web to find out how VMware Private Cloud compares to other environments. Our technicians will be happy to guide you through the process of choosing the best hosting solution for your specific situation.
