Software as a service

About: Software as a service is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8514 publications have been published within this topic receiving 136177 citations. The topic is also known as: Service as a Software Substitute & SaaSS.

A Study and Performance Evaluation of the Multi-Tenant Data Tier Design Patterns for Service Oriented Computing

Abstract: Multi-tenancy is one of key characteristics of the service oriented computing especially for Software as a Service (SaaS) to leverage economy of scale to drive down total cost of ownership for both service consumer and provider. This paper aims to study the technologies to build a cost-effective, secure and scalable multi-tenant infrastructure, especially in data tier. We first explore all the key implementation patterns of data tier multi-tenancy on aspects of isolation, security, customization & scalability etc. Furthermore, we mainly evaluate the performance of these design patterns on aspects of isolation and security via a series of experiments and simulations. This paper also identifies the potential performance bottlenecks, summarizes corresponding optimization approaches and best implementation practices for different multi-tenant business usage models.

Enabling multi-tenancy: An industrial experience report

Abstract: Multi-tenancy is a relatively new software architecture principle in the realm of the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model. It allows to make full use of the economy of scale, as multiple customers - “tenants” - share the same application and database instance. All the while, the tenants enjoy a highly configurable application, making it appear that the application is deployed on a dedicated server. The major benefits of multi-tenancy are increased utilization of hardware resources and improved ease of maintenance, resulting in lower overall application costs, making the technology attractive for service providers targeting small and medium enterprises (SME). Therefore, migrating existing single-tenant to multi-tenant applications can be interesting for SaaS software companies. In this paper we report on our experiences with reengineering an existing industrial, single-tenant software system into a multitenant one using a lightweight reengineering approach.

MRICloud: Delivering High-Throughput MRI Neuroinformatics as Cloud-Based Software as a Service

Abstract: Image analysis tools for brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have become increasingly important for computer-aided diagnosis that involves large amounts of medical image data. The authors of this article have endeavored to develop software tools to serve the clinical research community, starting with a stand-alone executable, hybrid local computation model for today's modern architecture of cloud services, which they call MRICloud. MRICloud provides a high-throughput neuroinformatics platform for automated brain MRI segmentation and analytical tools for quantification via distributed remote computation and Web-based user interfaces. There are several key, inherent advantages to a cloud-based software as a service--in particular, how it improves the efficiency of software implementation, upgrades, and maintenance. The client-server model is also ideal for high-performance computing, allowing for distribution of computational servers across the world. This article introduces the basic functions and utilities of MRICloud, its developmental history and future perspectives, its infrastructures, and the benefits of this cloud service framework.

A Quality Model for Evaluating Software-as-a-Service in Cloud Computing

Abstract: Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. One type of cloud service, SaaS is commonly utilized and it provides several benefits to service consumers. To realize these benefits, it is essential to evaluate the quality of SaaS and manage relatively higher level of its quality based on the evaluation result. Hence, there is a high demand for devising a quality model to evaluate SaaS cloud services. Conventional frameworks do not effectively support SaaS-specific quality aspects such as reusability and accessibility. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive model for evaluating quality of SaaS. We first define key features of SaaS. And then, we derive quality attributes from the key features, and define metrics for the quality attributes. To validate our quality model for SaaS, we conduct assessment based on IEEE 1061. By using the proposed SaaS quality model, SaaS can be evaluated by both service providers. Furthermore, the evaluation results are utilized as an indicator for SaaS quality management.