Implementing Critical Features for Your SaaS Application
Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are high in demand, and many companies are creating SaaS solutions in response to this demand. Cloud-based software is the default deployment option for practically every sort of company technology in 2021, from large businesses to small and medium enterprises. It is important for you to know the essential features that a SaaS application needs to have, whether you are a consumer or a SaaS vendor. This article delves into the features you need to add to your existing application or be aware of.
What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?
SaaS is a software delivery model that enables customers to access data from any device that has an internet connection and a web browser. Software providers host and manage the servers, databases, and code that make up an application under this web-based approach.
SaaS, along with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS), is one of the three main categories of cloud computing. In a commercial setting, SaaS is a replacement for traditional software installation, in which a user has access to a server to build, install, and configure an app. The user does not pay for the program itself under SaaS. Instead, it functions as a rental. They have permission to use it for a period of time as long as they pay on a subscription model for the program they are utilizing.
Critical SaaS Features
Consider a social media corporation that preserves each customer’s privacy while offering a reliable and secure service on a large scale to better comprehend the SaaS model. Customers of a social media firm can utilize the company’s systems and technology without fear of unauthorized access to their personal information.
Multitenant Architecture
In a multitenant architecture, all users and apps share a single, centrally maintained infrastructure and codebase. Each client is referred to as a tenant. Tenants may be given the power to customize some aspects of the program.
Nowadays, applications are structured so that each tenant’s storage area is segregated by having separate databases or distinct schemas within a single database or the same database with discriminators. Because all SaaS vendor clients share the same infrastructure and code base, vendors may innovate more quickly and save development work that would otherwise be spent supporting several versions of old code.
Automated Provisioning
Users should be able to access SaaS apps easily, which necessitates automating the process of provisioning services to users. Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business (B2C) customers often use SaaS apps. To do this, you simply need to call the online service and provide your credentials to establish your company/user.
Microsoft’s CREST API is a great example of a SaaS application that provides this important functionality. Platforms like Cloud Services Broker (CSB) simplify this process and enable on-demand access to SaaS apps. Another important feature is the ability to revoke access from a user or organization at any time if the customer chooses not to use the SaaS application.
Security of Applications
SaaS applications need to be protected from vulnerabilities. In general, they should be protected from OWASP/SAN-identified vulnerabilities. SaaS applications also need to enable strong identity and access control controls.
One of the most important aspects of any SaaS setup is securing application access. For this, tools like Frontegg’s free login box builder are extremely valuable to you if you want to accomplish the highest level of application security with the least amount of development effort.
Frontegg offers fast integration of a sophisticated user management infrastructure intended for modern applications. It provides cutting-edge security solutions for user and identity management, all while delivering a consistent consumer experience.
The platform includes a configurable admin portal layer for your end users, as well as a complete user management experience. Integrating their profile-management and admin-portal layers gives your project a multi-tenant secure backend infrastructure that is fully managed and granular.
Other factors that contribute to the security of a SaaS application are strong session management and anti-hijacking protection, detecting unauthorized sessions, multi-session protection, cookie usage that does not save sensitive data, cookie follow-up, enhanced authentication, and Protection from DoS/DDoS attacks.
Elasticity in Infrastructure
SaaS app usage is rarely fixed, and consumption can fluctuate significantly from month to month. Therefore, the infrastructure in which the application is located must be able to scale up or down the resources used in the background.
Currently, SaaS apps are built to recognize the behavior of the infrastructure. Monitoring agents placed within provisioning resources notify the appropriate management server regarding resource availability.
Policies and processes are typically embedded into the core architecture to expand/shrink infrastructure resources. The classic examples are micro architecture-based SaaS apps. To manage the elasticity of SaaS services, tools like Kubernetes are used. Another option is to create a policy engine that can receive and react to an event, such as the expansion or contraction of infrastructure resources.
Data Security
In today’s environment, it’s critical to ensure that data and company information are safeguarded from corruption and unwanted access. Because Software as Service applications are designed to be shared by multiple tenants, it’s critical to understand how safe the data is.
Certain sorts of data must be stored in encrypted form for a specific tenant and should not be accessible to other tenants. As a result, having a robust Key Management Framework or the ability to integrate/interface with other Key Management Frameworks has become an important feature of SaaS services. To protect the data, very strong role-based privileges must be implemented. Tools like SiteLock strengthen data security.
Conclusion
SaaS allows for the easy addition of new users, features, and a new tailored business solution. Implementing great features into your SaaS application is a very good step. The service provider is in charge of the backend and infrastructure. For both organizations and customers, SaaS solutions expand easily once good features are in place.
