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.

The unspoken revolution in software engineering

Abstract: In this article the author describes the outsourcing aspects of software engineering. The author finds outsourcing so fascinating partly because it serves as a magnifier and revelator of just about everything in software engineering. The development of offshoring also raises a new challenge for those of us entrusted with educating future software professionals in the industrialized world.

Cloud federation in a cloud computing environment

Abstract: Various methods, devices, and systems are described for cloud federation in a cloud computing network including bridging computing resources between an enterprise and a cloud or among multiple clouds. These techniques involve generating an image of the host system and decoupling it from its underlying computing resources so that it can be migrated across disparate computing resources in a seamless manner. In one embodiment, an enterprise workload can be bridged with cloud resources to receive software as a service. In other embodiments, bridging is performed across multiple public or private clouds, each potentially having disparate computing resources. In addition, users can access and use these cloud services through a web browser or other network interface anywhere in the cloud computing network as if the services were installed locally on their own computer.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS): perspectives and challenges

Abstract: Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has received significant attention recently as one of three principal components of cloud computing, and it often deals with applications that run on top of a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that in turn runs on top of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). This paper provides an overview of SaaS including its architecture and major technical issues such as customization, multi-tenancy architecture, redundancy and recovery mechanisms, and scalability. Specifically, a SaaS system can have architecture relating to a database-oriented approach, middleware-oriented approach, service-oriented approach, or PaaS-oriented approach. Various SaaS customization strategies can be used from light customization with manual coding to heavy customization where the SaaS system and its underlying PaaS systems are customized together. Multi-tenancy architecture is an important feature of a SaaS and various trade-offs including security isolation, performance, and engineering effort need to be considered. It is important for a SaaS system to have multi-level redundancy and recovery mechanisms, and the SaaS system needs to coordinate these with the underlying PaaS system. Finally, SaaS scalability mechanisms include a multi-level architecture with load balancers, automated data migration, and software design strategies.

Method and system for online software purchases

Abstract: A system for purchasing software online includes a plug-in used by a software application on a computing device to enable software purchases offline. During a first time software purchase, the plug-in captures credit card, address, and e-mail informnation that is stored on the computing device. The software then is enabled, but the software purchase is pending until the computing device goes online to complete the pending transaction. For subsequent software purchases, when the computing device once again goes online, the subsequent pending transactions are processed. In other embodiments, distributor, software development tool provider, affiliate, and partner relationships with third parties are provided. In further embodiments, a coupon, up-selling, or special offer mechanism, an online software store, a site license server, a software developer's kit (SDK), including an application programming interface (API) are provided.