SaaS Database Solutions and Browser Based Web ApplicationsWhat is Software as a Service (SaaS)?(SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.
SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies that support Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) mature. New developmental approaches, such as Ajax, that provide for more robust data delivery through web servers have become popular and broadband service has become increasingly available to support user access from more areas around the world.
SaaS is closely related to the ASP (application service provider) and On Demand Computing software delivery models. There are two slightly different delivery models for SaaS:
It is predicted that SaaS will make up 30 percent of the software market by 2007 and will be worth $10.7 billion by 2009. Drivers for SaaS adoptionThe traditional rationale for outsourcing of IT systems is that by applying economies of scale to the operation of applications, a service provider can offer better, cheaper, more reliable applications than companies can themselves. The use of SaaS-based applications has grown dramatically, as reported by many of the analyst firms that cover the sector. But it’s only in recent years that SaaS has truly flourished. Several important changes to the way we work have made this rapid acceptance possible. What is a Browser Based Web Application?In software engineering, a Web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via Web over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. It is also a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language (such as HTML, ASP, PHP, Perl,Python etc.) and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable. Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain Web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity. Common Web applications include Webmail, online retail sales, online auctions, wikis, discussion boards, Weblogs, MMORPGs and many other functions. In earlier types of client-server computing, each application had its own client program which served as its user interface and had to be separately installed on each user's personal computer. An upgrade to the server part of the application would typically require an upgrade to the clients installed on each user workstation, adding to the support cost and decreasing productivity. In contrast, Web applications dynamically generate a series of Web documents in a standard format supported by common browsers such as HTML/XHTML. Client-side scripting in a standard language such as JavaScript is commonly included to add dynamic elements to the user interface. Generally, each individual Web page is delivered to the client as a static document, but the sequence of pages can provide an interactive experience, as user input is returned through Web form elements embedded in the page markup. During the session, the Web browser interprets and displays the pages, and acts as the universal client for any Web application.
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