12/24/2020 SaaS-Based vs Cloud-Based: What's the Difference?

| LogicMonitor

5.21.20 / BUSINESS EDUCATION

SaaS-Based vs Cloud-Based:
What’s the Difference?

Why LogicMonitor Platform Pricing Resources Support

Software as a Service (SaaS) based and cloud-based products and servicesTry may
Security
it Free
sound
like they’re referring to theIntegrations
same thing. True, if the service exists “in the Cloud,” it may be
both SaaS and cloud-based. While your SaaS-based application will almost certainly be
cloud-based as well, your cloud-based services may not always be SaaS-based.
SaaS is a component of cloud computing. Cloud-based computing has three main components, Software as a Service
(SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

What Is a SaaS-Based Application?

A SaaS-based application, broadly, is any software you run that’s not on your premises. With rare exception, this means
most SaaS-based products are run via a web browser or similar and hosted in the Cloud. SaaS is not a plugin and does
not sit on your devices.

SaaS-based products have been widely available since the 90’s tech boom when a need for a wider array of cost-
efficient computing led the way for software to be hosted centrally and distributed out to meet the demands of rapid
scale, often globally, for growing businesses.

SaaS can often increase ROI overall, as there are often lower costs associated with deploying and maintaining SaaS-
based applications. The cost-effectiveness of SaaS has remained one of the biggest advantages of SaaS-based 1
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software, lowering TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and increasing margins for B2B and B2C businesses in the information
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age.

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12/24/2020 SaaS-Based vs Cloud-Based: What's the Difference? | LogicMonitor

Additionally, choosing SaaS offers a variety of other advantages. With SaaS, you are guaranteed to run the latest, most
recent version at all times, with no updating necessary. As SaaS continues to grow and improve, so does the benefits it
provides to the consumer.

Examples of SaaS-based applications include Google G-Suite, Office 365, Salesforce, Cisco Webex, and Zendesk.

What Is Cloud-Based?
A cloud-based product or service is anything running in the Cloud. This includes SaaS-based applications, as well as
PaaS and IaaS-based. If you require an internet connection to properly run a service, it’s probably cloud-based.

The Cloud is developed as a way to share data faster and more effectively. Technology advancements have allowed for
entire servers and storage to be hosted in the Cloud, which comprises the infrastructure portion of cloud computing.

Infrastructure as a service serves to utilize entire infrastructure without the need for on-prem servers. AWS, GCP, and
Azure are all mostly IaaS. Your infrastructure, in the Cloud. That said, many services within these overarching cloud
platforms can be categorized as PaaS.

Platform as a service builds on top of IaaS and includes the components or framework to create and manage
applications. Examples include AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Lambda, and Zoho. The frameworks PaaS provides is often
used by developers so they can accelerate the development of their applications.

Reiterating the biggest difference between SaaS and cloud-based services, SaaS is only one part of the larger Cloud. The
biggest difference between the two is the magnitude with which cloud-based can be utilized.

What Are the Main Business Advantages of Cloud/SaaS-

Based Services?
Cloud-based and SaaS-based services hold similar advantages including:

-No need for lengthy installations. With everything in the Cloud, there are no drivers that need to run, and all updates
can happen instantaneously. Additionally, as the Cloud is often hosted and not owned, it’s on the third party to ensure
everything is running smoothly and up to date, so you can experience little to no downtime from their side.

-Data can be shared and synchronized faster across your entire network. Everything from code updates to business
emails can be shared and collaborated on in real-time.

-Far more cost-effective than entirely on-prem. Storing part or all of your infrastructure in the Cloud is often the most
efficient way to manage your company’s data.

–Added redundancy to prevent data loss and outages. Layers of redundancies can be added easily in most cloud
environments, making it harder for outages to happen and for data to be lost entirely.

-More secure. Public and private clouds can be used together to add crucial security measures.

The Future of Cloud-Based Products

As the capabilities of what can be done in the Cloud continue to grow exponentially, so do the complexities. Part of an
infrastructure, platform, or service can be in the Cloud, and part can be housed on-premises.
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Now that we are entering the information age, one thing cloud products do that on-prem products don’t do is collect
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large amounts of anonymized data and use this within their software algorithms to improve the user experience; making
their cars drive more safely (Tesla), suggesting new music that you are likely to listen to (Spotify), or helping you identify
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12/24/2020 SaaS-Based vs Cloud-Based: What's the Difference? | LogicMonitor

the root cause of a network issue more rapidly (LogicMonitor, humble brag). The continued growth of SaaS-based
platforms creates that future.

Security concerns can require certain information decentralized, while collaborative projects can require data synced in
the Cloud and on-prem in multiple places. You need to be able to manage your entire cloud infrastructure, IaaS, PaaS,
and SaaS.

LogicMonitor is a cloud-based service that can monitor all components of computing, whether on-prem or in the cloud,
to ensure you have visibility across your entire IT infrastructure. Check out our platform to learn more.
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