These days, it is hard to find an industry that hasn’t placed its IT systems in a cloud environment. Software as a Service (SaaS), one of the models of cloud computing, is increasingly becoming one of the most popular solutions in the manufacturing industry. Since tasks such as cloud infrastructure management are handled by the hosting company, businesses get the advantage of focusing more on their core businesses.

The number of companies that are placing their IT infrastructure in a SaaS environment is increasing. According to a study of companies who had placed their IT infrastructure in a SaaS environment in the manufacturing, distribution, and other industries by Mint Jutras, SaaS-based applications represent 22% of all software installed in the manufacturing and distribution industries today. This figure will grow to 45% within 10 years. However, the report found that a large chunk of the surveyed companies still doesn’t have much knowledge about several details regarding SaaS cloud hosting. Here are some of the findings of the report and some definitions by Mint Jutras that unveil why SaaS is being counted as one of the best cloud hosting services.

 

Understanding SaaS Technology

As the name suggests, in this type of technology, software is delivered as a service. When you are hosted on a SaaS environment, you get access to software over the internet and make payment on a subscription basis.

Difference Between Single and Multi-tenant SaaS Architectures

SaaS applications are available in single tenant and multi-tenant applications. The report showed that 57% of the respondents don’t understand the difference between the two architectures.
 
Single-tenant: When you are hosted on a single-tenant SaaS environment, you get your own instance of the software application. Also known as a customizable solution and multi-instance, a company on a single-tenant SaaS may have to share some common surfaces, such as the integration platform and security.

Multi-tenant: With a multi-tenant SaaS solution, multiple users share the same hosted software application, hardware, operating system, and data storage architecture. However, a multi-tenant environment is designed to be highly customizable. For data protection and business processes, a host offers the customization option for configuration settings, company, and role-based access.

Reasons Why Companies are Migrating to SaaS Hosting Solution

Affordability: Cost is no doubt one of the main factors driving the manufacturing industry and several other sectors to migrate to a SaaS environment. According to the study, 52% of the total surveyed preferred this cloud technology because of its affordability. Also, 46% named lower startup costs and 42% cited lower IT overhead or no investment in IT staff as their main reason for adopting SaaS.

Reduced Cost: A total of 48% of the respondents named reduced cost and effort of upgrades as their second reason for preferring SaaS. While nearly 39% of the surveyed cited the availability of cutting-edge technology through more frequent updates as their reason for adopting the SaaS environment.

Customization Option Allowing You to Make a Choice:
 
The report also unveiled customizability as an important reason for SaaS popularity. A total of 25% of the respondents cited this feature as the reason for their preference to this hosting solution. According to the survey, customization is more important for reasons that are perceptional and not practical.
 
SaaS not only reduces your IT costs but also makes your organization more efficient. With every passing year, it is emerging out as one of the best cloud hosting services. We expect to see a greater percentage of companies migrating to this cloud hosting solution in the coming years. This is no longer an IT technology; it is becoming a necessity for doing business.