Why switch to SaaS?

When migrating business-critical applications, it’s vital you make all the necessary preparations ahead of time and maintain total control over the entire process. More and more business applications are heading to the cloud, providing user and IT teams with a new model for accessing services and resources.

Switching from traditional apps is a big change —both for users and their IT support teams — but SaaS is quickly growing in popularity.

So, how does this look in practice?

As with everything in the Cloud, there’s an element of the unknown. But with the right tools in place, moving an app (even challenging business-critical apps) to the cloud doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark . Here’s what we think is essential to consider when migrating to SaaS:

1. See what’s being used

Before moving another big, important application to the cloud, why not check which applications are actually being used across your organization. Application performance monitoring tools are just the thing for the job and provide details like how many users are accessing each SaaS service and how much capacity they’re using up. Ideally, you’ll also be able to see even more detailed info such as the usernames of anyone using the app.

This will then allow you to rank your apps based on their importance to the business: from those absolute necessities to others which aren’t important at all. It makes sense to keep tabs on user behavior and limit usage policies for recreational SaaS apps. You can even block some to free up bandwidth for business-critical apps like IBM FileNet Solutions.

2. Understand how solutions are performing

Check how your current applications are performing before migrating a business-critical application to the cloud.

Remember: Introducing an app to an already congested network could lead to migration failure. Even if you meticulously carry out every infrastructure step, make all the correct preparations for directory synchronization, supply users, create a hybrid environment adapted to the needs of your office, etc. migration can still fail.

You could celebrate a successful launch on day one, but by day two your team might be flooded with usability and performance issues. To avoid problems like this, make sure your performance plans are just as thorough as your strategic launch plans. If you classify apps by their importance to your business, you can use performance monitoring to gain insights into each app from metrics like traffic volume, latency and data loss. You’ll then know ahead of time if an app has crippling performance issues and before it has the opportunity to wreak havoc on your network.

3. Get a handle on bandwidth

Before migrating any business-critical app to the cloud, ensure you have access to servers through all layers of network security. Pre-migration is also a great time to make sure you’re getting exactly what you paid for from your network and internet service providers.

Remember to consider other SaaS applications as this will help ensure there’s enough bandwidth for all of them. Being aware of every important SaaS app throughout your organization helps you classify them and provide a great end-user experience for critical applications like SAP, Salesforce and others.

4. Keep the users in mind (User/Customer-centric)

There’s no point deploying a SaaS solution if your users aren’t using it. What’s more, it’s part of an IT department’s job to monitor adoption rates. Once deployed, keep an eye on how many users are using the new SaaS service, how much capacity they’re using, and which departments have adopted the service. If one team is sticking with their on-premises software, but another is fully on board with SaaS, encourage collaboration and sharing of best practices.

User experience is king when it comes to measuring and quantifying app usage. Modern application performance monitoring tools allow IT teams to see what kind of experience each user is having, wherever they are. Metrics like latency and data loss are important indicators for potential issues.

5. An IT team’s work is never done (Updates, etc.)

Although it might be used and managed differently, that business-critical cloud app is still part of your IT team’s domain. Take advantage of performance monitoring to prevent service tickets or worse still, those silent complaints and whispers that resonate through your workforce but never make it into your service queue. Stay proactive with continuous background monitoring of applications, and set up alerts for metrics like connectivity, available bandwidth or packet loss so you can stay ahead of the curve and counteract problems before they even occur.

Security with SaaS solutions

Security is a top priority for SaaS vendors and has been one of the main roadblocks hindering SaaS adoption — despite its evolution over time. After all, what company is willing to place business-critical data in an insecure environment?

ARender responds to this challenge in three distinct ways, detailed below.

1. Security

Today, companies large and small, across all industries have successfully implemented various SaaS-based solutions, which has gradually led to fewer security concerns as the SaaS model has proven itself to be both highly stable and secure. Nonetheless, SaaS vendors pay particular attention to the security of their infrastructure.

SaaS environments have four layers of security to safeguard customer data:
- Site security at the physical data center where the servers and other hardware are located.
- Communications security for the transmission of customer data.
- Application security via monitoring user access, administrative roles and possible intrusion or other vulnerabilities.
- Database security in terms of data storage, back-up, and disaster recovery.

SaaS vendors can implement more strategic security solutions due to the volume and consistency of their services. In turn, their customers then also benefit from this heightened focus on security.

2. Service Level Agreements

Service level agreements (SLA) (or guarantees) specify the level of service being purchased, including how the service is to be provided, supported, and maintained. For SaaS providers, the SLA is used to set realistic customer expectations.

The SLA clearly defines the service level commitments made by the software vendor and details their obligations to the customer as well as any penalties should the vendor fail to fulfil these responsibilities. For SaaS customers, the SLA introduces a new level of accountability from the software provider and a means to measure and monitor service performance.

The SLA is a way for customers to track the vendor’s progress on meeting the committed service levels and to seek compensation if they’re not delivering on their commitments. It documents what is important to the customer while also taking into consideration what is realistic in terms of service to be offered by the service provider.

The SLA is a way to manage customer expectations while supporting the relationship through service guarantees. SLAs are typically measured in terms of performance standards based on key criteria determined by the customer and provider. For example:
- Transaction performance — requirements for completing a given transaction
- Business process performance — requirements for completing a defined business workflow end-to-end
- System availability performance — requirements regarding system ‘up-time’, the frequency of events that stop production, etc.
- Accessibility — the ability of users to connect to and make use of software services
- Security — including authentication and authorization
- Scalability — the ability of the system to grow with the business

Want to know more? Read about ARender SaaS Commitments in our documentation

3. Pay-as-you-go licensing

Pay-as-you-go licensing, also referred to as a subscription model, is another fundamental element of the SaaS business model. Rather than simply selling software products, SaaS vendors offer a subscription (monthly, quarterly or annually) for the use of and access to the business software application.

This subscription, which can be canceled at any time, is governed by the SLAs mentioned under number 2. Specific licenses are be decided by many different factors, e.g. number of users, transaction volume and amount of data storage.

Vendor-managed services are the norm in SaaS solutions. It’s typically the SaaS vendor, not the customer, who’s responsible for all maintenance, updates and performance calibration. For example, if new servers are required, or hardware needs to be upgraded, this is carried out by the vendor, not the client.

Customers no longer need to worry about software updates because they’re included, implemented and managed by the vendor at no additional cost. What’s more, any changes or upgrades are seamless because they affect the underlying software, not the customer’s specific configurations. The vendor also manages performance calibration and optimization. It’s the vendor, not the customer, who’s responsible for making sure that the software runs efficiently with balanced loads and ultimately works as intended.

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