Software as a Service
Software as a Service (SaaS) means the vendor runs the software; customers use it over the network on a subscription or consumption model. We rate the delivery model assess: powerful for product velocity and ops efficiency, but not every problem should be SaaS, security boundary, tenancy, compliance, and customer data residency must drive the decision.
Blurb
Software as a service is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.
Summary
When SaaS fits: multi-tenant products, frequent releases, Continuous Deployment, per-tenant Feature Flags, and teams that can live by 12 Factor App / Cattle Not Pets assumptions (stateless app tiers, managed data stores).
When to hesitate: regulated data on shared infrastructure, air-gapped customers, heavy customization per tenant, or “SaaS” as an excuse to skip DevSecOps (shared responsibility is still yours).
B2B SaaS stack: identity (Auth0, FrontEgg), observability (OpenTelemetry), and GitOps delivery (ArgoCD) are common companions; each has its own garden rating.
Details
| Topic | Notes |
|---|---|
| Tenancy | Single-tenant vs multi-tenant affects cost, isolation, and compliance story |
| Security | You own app-layer controls; vendor owns platform; map both in contracts and architecture |
| Delivery | Prefer Continuous Deployment over manual releases when uptime SLAs allow |
| Naming | Also referenced as SaaS throughout the garden |