How can you handle the performance of SaaS-based applications effectively?

It is projected that the number of users  who  adopt  software-as-a service can increase drastically in the coming year. This will provide numerous opportunities for all kinds of cloud-based SaaS companies. However, with the growth of any industry, it is only natural that the number of companies providing this service will also grow; hence, it is imperative that SaaS providers fulfill all the customer’s demands or risk losing that customer to their competitor company. Companies will also have to focus on the scalability and optimization of their operations at a steady rate so that they can continue to keep their existing customers happy while growing their customer base. 

This means identifying any potential problems or performance issues and resolving them quickly.

The cost effective way of ensuring the performance of a SaaS-based application

In order to significantly improve the performance of a cloud-based application, a SaaS vendor would first need to correctly tune the SQL queries and configure their database systems appropriately. This helps to ensure the application works efficiently and the vendors are able to gain an additional return on investments for their hardware purchases.

In the meanwhile, assessing a database issue may be challenging as there is an increase in complexity between SQL queries, server resource provisioning, and data management systems. This, combined with the constantly evolving workload as well as the dynamic server environments, some of the more lightweight or ad hoc databases may not be able to give the required performance and fail to deliver any actionable information.  

Implementing a legitimate database performance management tool for resolving the performance issues of a database can help pinpoint the contribution of a database in slowing the response time of applications in the testing/development and production phase. 

What not to do

While there is a right way of doing something, there is also often the wrong way.In this case, some SaaS companies tend to address any application performance issue that arises by connecting additional servers instead of redesigning the operation. However, this quick fix often fails to be a foolproof plan for the long term. Another mistake vendors make with SaaS delivery systems is failing to configure their operations’ critical components properly. Rather than getting to the root cause of the problem, they try to fine-tune the applications with the help of data derived from APM tools.

Meeting customers’ performance demands is not an easy task, and more often than not, SaaS companies are confused about how they will meet the growing expectations of their customers. Four key elements affect the digital experience with SaaS, and these are the challenges that have to be overcome by every SaaS company so as to optimize their SaaS-based application. 

Challenges that have to be overcome are :

Growth of users

This is one of the main reasons companies face performance challenges with their application. There is an extensive growth in the number of SaaS end-users worldwide, and the application’s performance tends to deteriorate as the distance between the end-user and the SaaS providers’ data center increases.  There can be several variables such as network speed, strength of their mobile network, performance of their device etc. This is the leading cause of the poor performance of the SaaS application.  

Add ons to infrastructure.

As the SaaS provider expands their services into more geographical regions, they have to support more businesses on an enterprise level. This being said, although they add to their infrastructure, they also have to divide their existing systems to support the load. These changes to the system increase the program’s complexity and adversely affect the infrastructure’s health and the end-user application’s performance.  

Uncertainty of network  

A total outage of the complete SaaS is rare; however, it can have a disastrous effect on the end user when it does occur. One of the most recent cases of such an outage is the Amazon S3 outage that happened just a few months ago. Due to the popularity and diversity of this e-commerce provider, this outage caused high websites and apps as well as IoT devices to be inaccessible to users for numerous hours. This goes to show that it doesn’t matter how impressive your infrastructure is; having 100% availability all the time is an unrealistic endeavor.  

Update your management tools

Suppose you want to be one step ahead of any potential performance issues before the end user notices them. In that case, a SaaS provider will have to shift their application from the traditional application management system, i.e., APM, and use digital experience management (DEM). Suppose you are unfamiliar with how a DEM operated, then in simple words; it creates the experience of the end-user as the ultimate metric and identifies how the systems, its components, and underlying services influence the users’ experience. This works in the same way as the monitoring systems work to track the internal applications’ availability and performance. You will have to put a process in place that uses the right tools and monitors your SaaS applications.   Due to the increase in the system variables, the SaaS provider may find that they are drowning in a sea of data which affects the application’s performance. To make sense of this data and identify what causes the performance issues, advanced analytics will have to be used. When analyzed optimally, this data can be beneficial for their infrastructure and the geographical region outside it.   The business users of a SaaS service need to get involved with performance management processes to monitor the performance to meet their end-user’s rising demands.  For advice on how to fine tune your system contact us today at saasro.com@gmail.com