SiaaS: The Dawn of Dual-Owned Infrastructure

Introduction

After two decades of Saas (software as a service) where clients pay cloud service providers a monthly subscription to access and manage their data, we are on the cusp of seeing probably one of the biggest shifts in data technology management. This is not down to some form of recent ground-breaking innovation; rather it is an arrangement of services in the context of data that can now be assembled and made available to clients for significantly less cost, but as secure or even better than traditional cloud services.

Enter SiaaS

So what makes this arrangement we call 'SiaaS' so unique without re-inventing the wheel? The ultimate reason is the infrastructure that holds the data of a client organisation is owned and controlled by that client while access to that data via web applications is owned by the service provider.

How is this achieved?

The organisation that the data belongs to creates an account with a hosting provider and purchases a virtual private server (VPS). How much capacity is required depends on how much data and what kind is to be imported. Once the VPS has been acquired, the service provider is given temporary access to insert the necessary software which is the database and various security packages. That software also includes a secure tunnel that provides access for the service provider's web applications to interact with the database. After the set-up is completed, the temporary pass is terminated and upon a unique sub-domain being allocated by the service-provider, the client user is able to access and manage their data.

So what is the cost?

Given the client user takes care of its data storage by paying for its VPS, that cost is the same rate that a service provider would pay for hosting its apps. To put this metaphorically, that is rather like renting a space to store crops, but benefitting from having storage facilities in that space such as a warehouse that is managed and maintained. Of course, any prudent person would ask how much then is the cost of using the web services to access the data? Our pricing is given on [....] which is significantly less than traditional cloud services because we are not storing any data. Furthermore, there are no charges for egress fees as the VPS's will be on the same hosting service, therefore, the client benefits from paying a flat monthly fee each month.

What happens if the agreement terminated?

Should the client wish to end the service for any reason, they can do so as and when they wish. There is no need to worry about migrating data for the client because it remains in their possession and control so long as they maintain their VPS. This may occur for a variety of reasons which includes switching service provider.