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Introduction
Recently, I spent some time reading the book Building Multi-Tenant SaaS Applications by Tod Golding. In this post, I’ll summarize the key concepts from this book and share my thoughts on SaaS architecture.
SaaS Mindset
As Tod Golding states in the book, “At its core, SaaS is a business model.” This perspective is insightful and encourages us to think about SaaS with a bussiness mindset. Tod emphasizes that agility is a key advantage of the SaaS model. To understand why SaaS model offer better agility, We need know it’s difference with with the traditional installed software model. In the installed software model, the software is typical deployed on the customer’s server, often in various version, that require different management and operation support. While this model is good fit for some software providers and is suitable for specific situation. However, having different software versions across various environments greatly increases the complexity of the software upgrade and maintenance.
Installed Software Model, from Tod’s Book, redraw using Remdraw
Unlike the installed software model, the SaaS model uses a shared infrastructure to deliver the same software version to all tenants. With a unified version and shared infrastructure, software providers can manage, deploy, and operate their SaaS products collectively across different tenants. This operational efficiency accelerates business innovation, enabling softwate providers rapidly react to market and customer needs and seize new growth opportunities.
SaaS Model, from Tod’s Book redraw using Remdraw
In the SaaS model, it’s doesn’t matter if a tenant has dedicated resources or shared resources. The key point is that all tenants are running the same version of the software, which is the litmus test for SaaS model.
Shared vs Dedicated Infrastructure, from Tod’s Book redraw using Remdraw
However, Tod doesn’t explicitly discuss another important key factors drives the success of SaaS model in his book: economics of scale. Obviously, shared infrastucture among different tenants will bring the economics of scale.
Two Halves of SaaS
Just like when we talk about building, building a skyscraper isn’t same with building a house. The design and implementation of Saas architecture might be different in different suitation. However, Tod Golding provide a good framework to help us understand the SaaS architecture, he split the SaaS architecture into two aspects, the application panel and the control panel.
Two Halves of SaaS, from Tod’s Book redraw using Remdraw