SaaS is NOT Hosting is NOT SaaS

There is a HUGE difference between SaaS and Hosting. According to Gartner, there are 8 key areas involved in the delivery of a software application:

1. Data Center
2. Network & Storage
3. Physical Servers
4. Virtualization
5. Operating System
6. Databases
7. Application
8. Data

As an IBM Maximo® as a Service (MaaS) provider, oftentimes, I hear or see the term “hosting” being used as a reference to the services Projetech provides. Although, the error may seem benign, it is an extreme misnomer and injustice to what it is we really do! Saying we deliver a hosting solution is comparable to saying the solar system is a galaxy! I realize it’s not an intentional offense, but a matter of lack of awareness of the difference.

In the traditional method of running a corporate application fully on-premises, all 8 areas identified by Gartner are “self-managed” which means the customer manages the whole shebang from infrastructure to the application and everything in between. Upgrades to all technology must be done every so often to keep the application running smoothly. In a SaaS cloud delivery model, the first 7 items are managed by the SaaS Solution Provider with the last item, Data, being managed by the customer. By the way, the data should always belong to the customer! I mentioned upgrades earlier; with SaaS, upgrades are included in the services and cover the entire solution stack.

Projetech’s MaaS services cover items 1 – 7 from Gartner’s list, which makes us a SaaS provider. You can read Techopedia’s description of Cloud hosting if you need more proof that what we deliver is not hosting!

To keep in good standing with IBM licensing requirements, our customers must be covered by valid software licenses of Maximo, even with Maximo as a Service. Licensing options are quite flexible with our solution. We offer clients 3 different licensing options: Projetech Provided, Client Provided (a.k.a. Bring Your Own License), or blending of the two options. No matter which license model our customers employ, they all receive the same stellar managed Software as a Service experience!

‍