Software as a service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery system in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. The advantages of the SaaS model are that it is easier to manage and that all the users have the same version of the software because updates and patching is done automatically. It grants global accessibility, making remote working models easier, which reduces costs and improves performance. The SaaS industry is now maturing beyond simple, historical financial measures towards a sophisticated operational measure in the form of a new Customer Success Metrics and Predictive Analytics.
Some of the giants in the industry are Salesforce, LinkedIn and Workday and while their services vary, the most significant one remains their cloud computing applications and platforms. Read more at: http://zeendo.com/info/top-10-software-as-a-service-saas-companies/

“Companies are pushing more sensitive and regulated data into the cloud. But, this journey is raising questions like 'security of data'.”

Applying software-as-a-service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) add on some more risk to the organizations. Ericka Chickowshi(specializes in information technology and business innovation) in her article “10 security questions to ask a cloud service provider” at Informationweek, discussed about 10 questions to be asked by companies from SaaS service providers before applying cloud. Some of them are:

·         Do you keep a signed audit trail of which users performed what actions when, both through their UI and API?

·         What is my role and your role in the protection of my data?

·         Do you encrypt all data transmissions, including all server-to-server data transmissions, within data centers?

·         What is your termination or ‘exit process’ for ensuring successful transition from services to an alternative offering?

·         Do you allow customers to perform scheduled penetration tests of either the production environment or a designated testing environment?

Asking these questions can help you to assess the risk. To know more questions and their reason for asking, visit the following link: 
http://www.darkreading.com/informationweek-home/10-security-questions-to-ask-a-cloud-service-provider/d/d-id/1320377