What's the Difference Between Cloud Computing and SaaS?

Every time I log into Facebook, or search for flights online, I am taking advantage of cloud computing. However, neither of these examples would be considered SaaS. According to Gartner, cloud computing is not just a buzzword; it does have a distinct meaning separate from SaaS.
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Recently, I’ve noticed that a lot of vendors have started talking about “cloud computing” in their marketing materials. In many cases they’re referring to solutions that were previously called Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which begs the question – what is the difference between these two terms, anyway? Is “cloud computing” simply a new industry buzzword with no real meaning? Or is there actually a difference between the two?

Fortunately, the analysts at Gartner helped to answer my question with a recent report that clearly addressed just this issue. According to them, cloud computing is not just a buzzword; it does have a distinct meaning separate from SaaS.

The way I understand it, “cloud computing” refers to the bigger picture…basically the broad concept of using the internet to allow people to access technology-enabled services. According to Gartner, those services must be “massively scalable” to qualify as true “cloud computing”. So according to that definition, every time I log into Facebook, or search for flights online, I am taking advantage of cloud computing. However, neither of these examples would be considered SaaS.

While most (but not all) Software-as-a-Service solutions fall under the larger cloud computing definition as “massively scalable”, they also have a number of other defining factors. First, SaaS is software that’s “owned, delivered, and managed remotely by one or more providers.” It also “allows a sharing of application processing and storage resources in a one-to-many environment…on a pay-for-use basis, or as a subscription.”

So, with all that said, I can clearly state that Fortiva is a SaaS solution using cloud computing…but does it really matter? At the end of the day it comes down to how well the solution meets the needs of the user, both from a feature-functionality, as well as from a total cost of ownership perspective. Whatever you want to call it, the benefits of SaaS solutions go well beyond the buzzwords that may be used to describe them. Understanding that is much more important than getting caught up in the terms marketers use to try to get customers’ attention.

[This post appeared originally here and is republished in full with the kind permission of the author.]