A SaaS provider provides users with software applications on-demand, which are accessible through any internet device, such as a web browser. Furthermore, the provider hosts the software application and the underlying infrastructure, relieving the customer from the burden of management and maintenance activities such as software updates and the application of security patches.

There are many advantages of using this model for both the user and the provider. For the user, there is a considerable reduction in management costs, and for the provider, they have more control over the traffic, thus allowing them to avoid any overloads. An example of SaaS is any web-based email service, such as Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce and Yahoo!.