Welcome back to the SEB Tech Blog. This time, we explore how to evaluate SaaS solutions using tools that reveal architecture, security, and operational readiness.

At SEB, we take a structured approach to evaluating SaaS through different tools that uncover architecture, security, and operational readiness. These assessments help ensure that any potential SaaS aligns with our requirements and business needs.

Introduction

We often get asked to participate in technical deep-dive sessions with potential SaaS providers, and it’s indeed a great opportunity to evaluate different solutions, discuss architecture and simply find out more what’s under the hood. 

The benefits of SaaS

A SaaS is a proven alternative that offers cost-effective and rapid deployment by subscription. This eliminates the need for infrastructure and other resources, giving you more room to focus on your core business. On top of that, Cloud Providers offers a great deal of state-of-the-art advantages that benefit all parties. 

Why SEB is doing this

So, why not just go out there and buy a subscription you might ask yourself? Well, do you buy a car just because the color looks nice? Let’s not forget that a SaaS is still in fact an application with some sort of storage, database, compute, etc. There is no magic here, except for the fact that the SaaS provider is fully responsible for the development, infrastructure and other related aspects of the application.

For each use case we advise and participate in deep-dive sessions, we apply our tools and document our findings in an evaluation report that is handed over to the use-case driver.

Which areas do we evaluate? Depending on the specific needs and requirements it varies slightly. The goal of the evaluation is simply to verify that the SaaS meets SEBs requirements and thereby securing a smooth implementation. Depending on the specific use-case and area of interest – it’s not rare that we sometimes are met with poor architecture that don’t really fit well in the enterprise domain. Not surprisingly, a direct consequence of poor architecture usually translates to poor security, resilience and performance.

To summarize the different areas of interest without any specific prioritization, we normally include the following areas:

• Architecture & Design Principles
• Security & Access Control
• Monitoring & Logging
• Data Protection & Resilience
• Performance & Efficiency
• Connectivity

Final thoughts

There is no doubt that a properly built SaaS, matching the business needs, can save both time and money. However, in order to make this happen we need to take responsibility for our part and perform necessary steps before we potentially buy that great-looking car.

Cloud Technical Service Managers, Cloud Foundation
Benjamin Aktas and Oskar Leeo