Author: Sk Shahil

The startup ecosystem is growing, and new-age entrepreneurs are finding their footing in the SaaS (Software As A Service) market. This $152 billion SaaS ecosystem is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 27.5% during the 2021-2028 period.

Surprisingly, around 90% of the web was created in the last two years. The business world will continue to be jolted by a massive information influx, and SaaS will help streamlining complexities. With the ever-growing need to do more at any given time, SaaS ventures are moving from the fringe to the mainstream.

The new-age and visionary founders are moving towards SaaS because it is the fastest way to reach the masses. So let’s understand why innovative business minds focus on growing the SAAS business ecosystem.

Enablement to reach both B2B and B2C:

Compared to conventional development, SAAS product engineering is flexible, and it empowers entrepreneurs to target both B2B and B2C. In addition, SaaS ventures have a unique advantage of direct access to the end customer. Therefore, it is more of a need for bootstrapped startups as they have to focus on generating maximum value with every customer interaction.

The beauty of the SaaS model is that it can cater to customers across the globe. As a result, innovative founders can gain access to markets that were previously out of their reach, allowing them to scale and optimize operations as they go along rapidly.

73% of global businesses wish to migrate from the legacy systems:

There is a massive opportunity in the SaaS market as most businesses are still running on legacy systems. A study conducted by the Entrepreneur website revealed that nearly 73% of the respondents want to migrate from their existing software to a more modern system.

The key reason for this shift is that new-age entrepreneurs want to be future-ready and customer-ready to cater to all requirements before anyone else. With such a massive opportunity, it’s obvious why SAAS application development startups are rising.

Uninterrupted scalability:

In this venture capitalist and angel investment-centric world, entrepreneurs need to showcase their ability to grow overnight. Traditional businesses take years to show substantial growth, and the opportunity might have already passed by then.

SaaS ventures don’t have that problem as they can be scaled much faster. SaaS startups can grow unprecedentedly with a focus on customer acquisition and engagement from Day 1. It makes a SAAS development company more eligible for investments than others.

The best thing about uninterrupted scalability is that it doesn’t require substantial upfront. With the right team in place and some elbow grease, SaaS startups can quickly scale up without burning a hole in their pockets.

The cost of customer acquisition is dipping:

A lot has been said about the cost of customer acquisition, but not many people know that it is decreasing. With new marketing channels and better sales intelligence tools, entrepreneurs can now reach out to their audience at a fraction of the cost.

Moreover, the increased adoption of SaaS products among customers is growing; it has made it easier for founders to acquire new customers. Word-of-mouth marketing is also helping them to lower their customer acquisition costs.

Wrapping up!

With the advent of innovative technologies and marketing channels, founders find new ways to reach their target audience and scale up quickly. In the upcoming time, the SaaS ecosystem will dominate the startup world.

According to Statista, around 93% of SaaS application users are concerned over the security of their data. Moreover, 36% of users are worried about their information shared for security monitoring. These numbers are enough to show that the security of a SaaS application is not something to take lightly.

There could be myriad SaaS security challenges in business, but you can mitigate them by following some crucial SaaS security best practices checklist.

Enhanced authentication:

When it comes to SaaS applications, the first thing you need to focus on is the authentication process. In addition to this, more people take secure authentication as one of their SaaS security requirements. Two-factor authentication should become the norm for logging into all SaaS applications. It will ensure that even if the user’s password is compromised, the hackers cannot access the account without having the second factor. Furthermore, you should also consider implementing single sign-on (SSO) for your SaaS applications. It will allow users to log into all their applications with a single set of credentials.

Oversight and vetting:

It is essential to have complete oversight of the SaaS applications being used by your employees as an organization. You should clearly understand which applications are being accessed and by whom. Furthermore, you need to vet all the SaaS applications before allowing employees to use them based on their requirements. It will help you ensure that only secure and reliable applications are being used. It’s also an important point to cover in web and mobile app security best practices.

CASB tools:

Cloud access security broker (CASB) tools are a must for SaaS applications organizations. These tools help secure data in the cloud and provide transparency into activities. This integration of CASB tools of SaaS in cloud computing allows organizations to control access to SaaS applications and enforce security policies. CASB tools help you enhance the security of SaaS applications in a streamlined manner.

Moreover, data encryption is another crucial best practice for SaaS security management. It will ensure that even if security breaches take place, it will be unreadable and unusable by the hackers. Furthermore, you should also consider using encrypted channels for all communication with the SaaS application. When companies integrate CASB tools in their SaaS security audit, they can mitigate the data forgery SaaS issue.

Using SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM):

SSPM solutions offer organizations visibility into the risks and vulnerabilities associated with each SaaS application. Furthermore, SSPM solutions also help identify which SaaS applications need to be patched or updated. It is an ideal advancement that helps SaaS experts identify gaps and make changes to maintain a strong security posture for their applications.

Governance and incident management:

Organizations need to have a transparent governance model in place for SaaS applications. It will help to ensure that only authorized users have access to the applications and that all activity is monitored. Furthermore, incident management procedures should also be in place to quickly respond to any security incidents.

Incident management is among crucial for cloud-based technologies and cyber products. It will help ensure that any security incidents are quickly identified and remediated. Furthermore, organizations should have a transparent governance model to eliminate security issues with SaaS.

What is your take on SaaS application security?

Apart from the above-mentioned saas cloud security practices, what is your web app security checklist? Also, if you’re new to the SaaS domain, many cutting-edge application security companies can help you get started.