Applications on Demand

Above the mid-tier services are applications.

Software as a Service (SaaS) control: Leading analysts estimate that SaaS functionality is developing so quickly that in a few years, enterprises will be able to satisfy more than 50% of their application need via SaaS offerings. While this is good news, it also presents challenges to IT departments trying to deal with control and governance issues:

  • SaaS offerings are so convenient that business units can implement their own solutions without IT control
  • This can result in the storing of sensitive data in SaaS solutions without adequate review
  • Stovepipe buying patterns can negate the ability of the enterprise to secure volume purchase pricing for popular applications
  • Lack of forward thinking can result in trapped data with no ability to migrate away from a solution once it has served its purpose

A SaaS control solution can mediate between enterprise users and SaaS providers. This delivers a set of controls that enterprises need, allowing users to benefit from the wealth of SaaS solutions while driving down application implementation and operations costs.

For more about the challenges that SaaS presents, see Top Challenges for Enterprise SaaS Adoption.

Unified Virtual Desktop: Over the years, enterprises have deployed a range of COTS software packages and custom applications to meet the functional needs of the business. Workflows have evolved to encompass multiple applications, but often the only way to make these applications work together is simple copy-and-paste, swivel-chair processes. Users run multiple applications on the desktop at the same time and simply move data between each of them manually. This process is slow, error prone, and may expose data to unneeded security risks. Unified virtual desktops provide a way to leverage the value of existing applications and create automated workflows that span across multiple applications. Applications may run on the desktop, in the cloud, or as SaaS offerings. Unified virtual desktops provide faster workflow performance by eliminating simple human data copying steps, deliver fewer workflow exceptions by improving accuracy, and increase security by only exposing data on a need-to-know basis.