But what about the fact that SaaS applications are browser based and hosted? Well, other single-tenant applications can have those same attributes, so they are not differentiators. In fact, in one of my prior companies, we had trouble with competitors claiming they were “browser based” and “hosted”. We tried to differentiate ourselves based on the fact that we were multitenant (multi-tenant), but it was difficult when our competitors threw around terms that are often used to describe SaaS applications.

So, what is the most popular multitenant application?  Well, probably Facebook. Millions of people log in to the same database (yes there might be multiple servers hosting a huge database but you know what I mean). There is a single database schema (i.e. structure) for all customers and a single code set. Each person has his/her own little customized page and can make changes without affecting other pages. This is a classic SaaS application.

Since multitenancy is THE differentiating factor for SaaS applications, we are going to spend a lot of time on the subject in the SaaS Fans blog. And, have no fear SaaS fans. Multitenancy offers such as compelling advantage to software vendors/ISVs that it merits its own unique software classification (i.e. SaaS).

My vision for SaaSFans.com is that it will be a source of “best practices” and practical knowledge on designing, building, and deploying SaaS applications. We will rarely discuss the benefits and drawbacks of SaaS (there are plenty of other blogs for those discussions). Instead, we assume that you have already embraced the SaaS model and just need some help to get started on actually turning your vision into reality.

Other than the information provided here and any feedback that I can provide, if you would like some help actually building your SaaS application my company Surge (www.surgeforward.com) can help.

So, to all you SaaS fans out there, let’s share our ideas and turn our SaaS visions into reality. My plan is to post tasty morsels of SaaS knowledge at least every week so check back frequently.