55-508: Discovery Studio is a suite of software for simulating small molecule and macromolecule systems. It is developed and distributed by Dassault Systemes BIOVIA (formerly Accelrys). The product suite has a strong academic collaboration programme, supporting scientific research and makes use of a number of software algorithms developed originally in the scientific community, including CHARMM , MODELLER , DELPHI , ZDOCK, DMol3 and more. Discovery Studio provides software applications covering
110-538: A capital expenditure to an operating expenditure . The process of migration to SaaS and supporting it can also be a significant cost that must be accounted for. A challenge for SaaS providers is that demand is not known in advance. Their system must have enough slack to be able to handle all users without turning any away, but without paying for too many resources that will be unnecessary. If resources are static, they are guaranteed to be wasted during non-peak time. Sometimes cheaper off-peak rates are offered to balance
165-527: A provider and accessed over the Internet . The process of developing software involves several stages. The stages include software design , programming , testing , release , and maintenance . Software quality assurance and security are critical aspects of software development, as bugs and security vulnerabilities can lead to system failures and security breaches. Additionally, legal issues such as software licenses and intellectual property rights play
220-509: A vulnerability . Software patches are often released to fix identified vulnerabilities, but those that remain unknown ( zero days ) as well as those that have not been patched are still liable for exploitation. Vulnerabilities vary in their ability to be exploited by malicious actors, and the actual risk is dependent on the nature of the vulnerability as well as the value of the surrounding system. Although some vulnerabilities can only be used for denial of service attacks that compromise
275-520: A web application —had become the primary method that companies deliver applications. Software companies aim to deliver a high-quality product on time and under budget. A challenge is that software development effort estimation is often inaccurate. Software development begins by conceiving the project, evaluating its feasibility, analyzing the business requirements, and making a software design . Most software projects speed up their development by reusing or incorporating existing software, either in
330-441: A web browser as a publicly available web application . This means that customers can access the application anywhere from any device without needing to install or update it. SaaS providers often try to minimize the difficulty of signing up for the product. Many capitalize on the service-oriented structure to respond to customer feedback and evolve their product quickly to meet demands. This can enable customers to believe in
385-498: A wide area network . SaaS architecture varies significantly from product to product. Nevertheless, most SaaS providers offer a multi-tenant architecture. With this model, a single version of the application, with a single configuration ( hardware , network , operating system ), is used for all customers ("tenants"). This means that the company does not need to support multiple versions and configurations. The architectural shift from each customer running their own version of
440-457: A change request. Frequently, software is released in an incomplete state when the development team runs out of time or funding. Despite testing and quality assurance , virtually all software contains bugs where the system does not work as intended. Post-release software maintenance is necessary to remediate these bugs when they are found and keep the software working as the environment changes over time. New features are often added after
495-457: A client and manages all needed physical and software resources. Unlike other software delivery models, it separates "the possession and ownership of software from its use". SaaS use began around 2000, and by 2023 was the main form of software application deployment. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application . Unlike most self-hosted software products, only one version of the software exists and only one operating system and configuration
550-486: A code's correct and efficient behavior, its reusability and portability , or the ease of modification. It is usually more cost-effective to build quality into the product from the beginning rather than try to add it later in the development process. Higher quality code will reduce lifetime cost to both suppliers and customers as it is more reliable and easier to maintain . Software failures in safety-critical systems can be very serious including death. By some estimates,
605-552: A higher price. Pooling all resources might make it possible to achieve higher efficiency, but an outage affects all customers so availability must be prioritized to a greater extent. Many systems use a combination of both approaches, pooling some resources and siloing others. Other companies group multiple tenants into pods and share resources between them. In the United States, constitutional search warrant laws do not protect all forms of SaaS dynamically stored data. The result
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#1733085527951660-443: A legal regime where liability for software products is significantly curtailed compared to other products. Source code is protected by copyright law that vests the owner with the exclusive right to copy the code. The underlying ideas or algorithms are not protected by copyright law, but are often treated as a trade secret and concealed by such methods as non-disclosure agreements . Software copyright has been recognized since
715-401: A per-tenant basis, rather than shared between all tenants. Routing functionality is necessary to direct tenant requests to the appropriate services. Some SaaS products do not share any resources between tenants—called siloing. Although this negates many of the efficiency benefits of SaaS, it makes it easier to migrate legacy software to SaaS and is sometimes offered as a premium offering at
770-437: A programming language is run through a compiler or interpreter to execute on the architecture's hardware. Over time, software has become complex, owing to developments in networking , operating systems , and databases . Software can generally be categorized into two main types: The rise of cloud computing has introduced the new software delivery model Software as a Service (SaaS). In SaaS, applications are hosted by
825-425: A quick web search . Most creative professionals have switched to software-based tools such as computer-aided design , 3D modeling , digital image editing , and computer animation . Almost every complex device is controlled by software. Software as a service Software as a service ( SaaS / s æ s / ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to
880-495: A significant role in the distribution of software products. The first use of the word software is credited to mathematician John Wilder Tukey in 1958. The first programmable computers, which appeared at the end of the 1940s, were programmed in machine language . Machine language is difficult to debug and not portable across different computers. Initially, hardware resources were more expensive than human resources . As programs became complex, programmer productivity became
935-509: A specific version of the software, downloaded, and run on hardware belonging to the purchaser. The rise of the Internet and cloud computing enabled a new model, software as a service (SaaS), in which the provider hosts the software (usually built on top of rented infrastructure or platforms ) and provides the use of the software to customers, often in exchange for a subscription fee . By 2023, SaaS products—which are usually delivered via
990-415: A system's availability, others allow the attacker to inject and run their own code (called malware ), without the user being aware of it. To thwart cyberattacks, all software in the system must be designed to withstand and recover from external attack. Despite efforts to ensure security, a significant fraction of computers are infected with malware. Programming languages are the format in which software
1045-717: A technological innovation, SaaS has come to be perceived more as a business model. By 2023, SaaS had become the primary method that companies deliver applications. Popular consumer SaaS products include all social media websites, email services like Gmail and its associated Google Docs Editors , Skype , Dropbox , and entertainment products like Netflix and Spotify . Enterprise SaaS products include Salesforce 's customer relationship management (CRM) software, SAP Cloud Platform , and Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning . Some SaaS providers offer free services to consumers that are funded by means such as advertising , affiliate marketing , or selling consumer data. One of
1100-475: Is commonly used to support this release schedule. Many SaaS developers use test-driven development , or otherwise emphasize frequent software testing , because of the need to ensure availability of their service and rapid deployment. Domain-driven design , in which business goals drive development, is popular because SaaS products must sell themselves to the customer by being useful. SaaS developers do not know in advance which devices customers will try to access
1155-471: Is in charge of directing the system and covers functionality such as tenant onboarding, billing, and metrics, as well as the system used by the SaaS provider to configure, manage, and operate the service. Many SaaS products are offered at different levels of service for different prices, called tiering . This can also affect the architecture for both planes, although it is commonly placed in the control plane. Unlike
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#17330855279511210-433: Is often a focus on frequent testing and releases. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the most basic form of cloud computing , where infrastructure resources—such as physical computers—are not owned by the user but instead leased from a cloud provider. As a result, infrastructure resources can be increased rapidly, instead of waiting weeks for computers to ship and set up. IaaS requires time and expertise to make use of
1265-465: Is responsible for software updates , including security patches , and for protecting the customers' data. SaaS systems inherently have a greater latency than software run on-premises due to the time for network packets to be delivered to the cloud facility. This can be prohibitive for some uses, such as time-sensitive industrial processes or warehousing. The rise of SaaS products is one factor leading many companies switched from budgeting for IT as
1320-416: Is supported. SaaS products typically run on rented infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or platform as a service (PaaS) systems including hardware and sometimes operating systems and middleware , to accommodate rapid increases in usage while providing instant and continuous availability to customers. SaaS customers have the abstraction of limitless computing resources, while economy of scale drives down
1375-453: Is written. Since the 1950s, thousands of different programming languages have been invented; some have been in use for decades, while others have fallen into disuse. Some definitions classify machine code —the exact instructions directly implemented by the hardware—and assembly language —a more human-readable alternative to machine code whose statements can be translated one-to-one into machine code—as programming languages. Programs written in
1430-438: The high-level programming languages used to create software share a few main characteristics: knowledge of machine code is not necessary to write them, they can be ported to other computer systems, and they are more concise and human-readable than machine code. They must be both human-readable and capable of being translated into unambiguous instructions for computer hardware. The invention of high-level programming languages
1485-480: The SaaS product and do not have to worry about the technical complexity of the physical hardware and operating system. Because cloud resources can be accessed without any human interactions, SaaS customers are provided with the abstraction of limitless computing resources, while economy of scale drives down the cost. Another key feature of cloud computing is that software updates can be rolled out and made available to all customers nearly instantaneously. In 2019, SaaS
1540-559: The advantages include reduced upfront cost, increased flexibility, and lower overall cost compared to traditional software with perpetual software licenses . In some cases, the steep one-time cost demanded by sellers of traditional software were out of the reach of smaller businesses , but pay-per-use SaaS models makes the software affordable. Usage may be charged based on the number of users, transactions, amount of storage spaced used, or other metrics. Many buyers prefer pay-per-usage because they believe that they are relatively light users of
1595-459: The application plane, the services in the control plane are not designed for multitenancy. The application plane—which varies a great deal depending on the nature of the product—implements the core functionality of the SaaS product. Key design issues include separating different tenants so they cannot view or change other tenants' data or resources. Except for the simplest SaaS applications, some microservices and other resources are allocated on
1650-399: The bottleneck. The introduction of high-level programming languages in 1958 hid the details of the hardware and expressed the underlying algorithms into the code . Early languages include Fortran , Lisp , and COBOL . There are two main types of software: Software can also be categorized by how it is deployed . Traditional applications are purchased with a perpetual license for
1705-469: The business can be placed in jeopardy. The ease of canceling a subscription and switching to a competitor leave customers with the leverage to get concessions from the seller. While recurring revenues can help the business and attract investors, the need for customer service skills in convincing the customer to renew their subscription is a challenge for providers switching to subscription from other revenue models. SaaS products are typically accessed via
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1760-707: The continued improvement of the product and help the SaaS provider get customers from an established traditional software company that likely can offer a deeper feature set. Although on-premises software is often less secure than SaaS alternatives, security and privacy are among the main reasons cited by companies that do not adopt SaaS products. SaaS companies have to protect their publicly available offerings from abuse, including denial-of-service attacks and hacking. They often use technologies such as access control , authentication , and encryption to protect data confidentiality . Nevertheless, not all companies trust SaaS providers to keep sensitive data secured. The vendor
1815-404: The correctness of code, while user acceptance testing helps to ensure that the product meets customer expectations. There are a variety of software development methodologies , which vary from completing all steps in order to concurrent and iterative models. Software development is driven by requirements taken from prospective users, as opposed to maintenance, which is driven by events such as
1870-400: The cost of poor quality software can be as high as 20 to 40 percent of sales. Despite developers' goal of delivering a product that works entirely as intended, virtually all software contains bugs. The rise of the Internet also greatly increased the need for computer security as it enabled malicious actors to conduct cyberattacks remotely. If a bug creates a security risk, it is called
1925-419: The cost of products. Unlike copyrights, patents generally only apply in the jurisdiction where they were issued. Engineer Capers Jones writes that "computers and software are making profound changes to every aspect of human life: education, work, warfare, entertainment, medicine, law, and everything else". It has become ubiquitous in everyday life in developed countries . In many cases, software augments
1980-520: The cost. SaaS architectures are typically multi-tenant ; usually they share resources between clients for efficiency, but sometimes they offer a siloed environment for an additional fee. Common SaaS revenue models include freemium , subscription , and usage-based fees. Unlike traditional software, it is rarely possible to buy a perpetual license for a certain version of the software. There are no specific software development practices that distinguish SaaS from other application development, although there
2035-598: The following areas: Software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the execution of a computer . Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital computers in the mid-20th century. Early programs were written in the machine language specific to the hardware. The introduction of high-level programming languages in 1958 allowed for more human-readable instructions, making software development easier and more portable across different computer architectures . Software in
2090-438: The form of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or open-source software . Software quality assurance is typically a combination of manual code review by other engineers and automated software testing . Due to time constraints, testing cannot cover all aspects of the software's intended functionality, so developers often focus on the most critical functionality. Formal methods are used in some safety-critical systems to prove
2145-439: The functionality of existing technologies such as household appliances and elevators . Software also spawned entirely new technologies such as the Internet , video games , mobile phones , and GPS . New methods of communication, including email , forums , blogs , microblogging , wikis , and social media , were enabled by the Internet. Massive amounts of knowledge exceeding any paper-based library are now available with
2200-480: The infrastructure in the form of operating systems and applications . Platform as a service (PaaS) includes the operating system and middleware , but not the applications. SaaS providers typically use PaaS or IaaS services to run their applications. Without IaaS, it would be extremely difficult to make an SaaS product scalable for a variable number of users while providing the instant and continual availability that customers expect. Most end users consume only
2255-446: The late 1990s with companies like Amazon (1994), Salesforce (1999), and Concur (1993) offering Internet -based applications on a pay-per-use basis. All of these focused on a single product to seize a high market share . Beginning with Gmail in 2004, email services were some of the first SaaS products to be mass-marketed to consumers. The market for SaaS grew rapidly throughout the early twenty-first century. Initially viewed as
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2310-403: The load and reduce waste. The expectation for continuous service is so high that outages in SaaS software are often reported in the news. There are not specific software development practices that differentiate SaaS from other application development. SaaS products are often released early and often to take advantage of the flexibility of the SaaS delivery model. Agile software development
2365-597: The mid-1970s and is vested in the company that makes the software, not the employees or contractors who wrote it. The use of most software is governed by an agreement ( software license ) between the copyright holder and the user. Proprietary software is usually sold under a restrictive license that limits copying and reuse (often enforced with tools such as digital rights management (DRM)). Open-source licenses , in contrast, allow free use and redistribution of software with few conditions. Most open-source licenses used for software require that modifications be released under
2420-428: The most popular models for Internet start-ups and mobile apps is freemium , where the company charges for continued use or a higher level of service. Even if the user never upgrades to the paid version, it helps the company capture a higher market share and displace customers from a rival. However, the company's hosting cost increases with the number of users, regardless of whether it is successful at enticing them to use
2475-472: The operating system) can take this saved file and execute it as a process on the computer hardware. Some programming languages use an interpreter instead of a compiler. An interpreter converts the program into machine code at run time , which makes them 10 to 100 times slower than compiled programming languages. Software is often released with the knowledge that it is incomplete or contains bugs. Purchasers knowingly buy it in this state, which has led to
2530-605: The paid version. Another common model is where the free version only provides demonstration ( crippleware ). Online marketplaces may charge a fee on transactions to cover the SaaS provider costs. It used to be more common for SaaS products to be offered for a one-time cost, but this model is declining in popularity. A few SaaS products have open source code, called open SaaS. This model can provide advantages such as reduced deployment cost, less vendor commitment, and more portable applications. The most common SaaS revenue models involve subscription and pay for usage. For customers,
2585-548: The physical world may also be part of the requirements for a software patent to be held valid. Software patents have been historically controversial . Before the 1998 case State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc. , software patents were generally not recognized in the United States. In that case, the Supreme Court decided that business processes could be patented. Patent applications are complex and costly, and lawsuits involving patents can drive up
2640-406: The product from—such as a desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone—and supporting a wide range of devices is often an important concern for the front-end development team. Progressive web applications allow some functionality to be available even if the device is offline. SaaS applications predominantly offer integration protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs) that operate over
2695-408: The release. Over time, the level of maintenance becomes increasingly restricted before being cut off entirely when the product is withdrawn from the market. As software ages , it becomes known as legacy software and can remain in use for decades, even if there is no one left who knows how to fix it. Over the lifetime of the product, software maintenance is estimated to comprise 75 percent or more of
2750-424: The same license, which can create complications when open-source software is reused in proprietary projects. Patents give an inventor an exclusive, time-limited license for a novel product or process. Ideas about what software could accomplish are not protected by law and concrete implementations are instead covered by copyright law . In some countries, a requirement for the claimed invention to have an effect on
2805-496: The software on their own hardware affects many aspects of the application's design and security features. In a multi-tenant architecture, many resources can be used by different tenants or shared between multiple tenants. The structure of a typical SaaS application can be separated into application and control planes. SaaS products differ in how these planes are separated, which might be closely integrated or loosely coupled in an event- or message-driven model. The control plane
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#17330855279512860-402: The software, and the seller benefits by reaching occasional users who would otherwise not buy the software. However, it can cause revenue uncertainty for the seller and increases the overhead for billing . The subscription model of SaaS offers a continuing and renewable revenue stream to the provider, although vulnerable to cancellation. If a significant number are cancelled, the viability of
2915-431: The total development cost. Completing a software project involves various forms of expertise, not just in software programmers but also testing, documentation writing, project management , graphic design , user experience , user support, marketing , and fundraising. Software quality is defined as meeting the stated requirements as well as customer expectations. Quality is an overarching term that can refer to
2970-445: Was estimated to make up the plurality, 43 percent, of the cloud computing market while IaaS and PaaS combined account for approximately 25 percent. In the 1960s, multitasking was invented, enabling mainframe computers to serve multiple users simultaneously. Over the next decade, timesharing became the main business model for computing, and cluster computing enabled multiple computers to work together. Cloud computing emerged in
3025-401: Was simultaneous with the compilers needed to translate them automatically into machine code. Most programs do not contain all the resources needed to run them and rely on external libraries . Part of the compiler's function is to link these files in such a way that the program can be executed by the hardware. Once compiled, the program can be saved as an object file and the loader (part of
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