ServiceNow is – Saas or Paas?
There is always confusion whether ServiceNow is a SaaS or PaaS.
First and foremost, ServiceNow is also a web application you’ll access through your browser so you can trace and automate work. Beyond that basic explanation, ServiceNow is a bit just like the software which also allows you to try and do some platform related activities as well. What ServiceNow is to us completely depends on which module of it you get your hands on first weather its ITSM or any .As an organization, ServiceNow provides both Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) with its own Now Platform as a single unit.
SAAS
SaaS is additionally cited as “On-Demand Software” or “Software as a Service”. It’s a software arrangement model within which services are hosted by a cloud service provider. These services are available to end-users that may be used on the net so, the tip users access these softwares without even installing them.
When it involves ServiceNow, we’ve got some applications (software) like incident, problem and change management, Knowledge DB, CMDB… as a service. This comes under the SaaS model because here software is served over the internet (cloud) on subscription basis.
PAAS
PaaS is Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a runtime environment. It allows coders to easily create, test, run, and deploy web applications. These applications can be purchased from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-per use basis and access them using the internet connection.
Here in ServiceNow, we’ve servers platforms like MySql server (to create tables mysql server has to be installed) and NodeJS (to run javascript on server side we need nodejs) to be installed. Also, If any organization wants to create their own application using OOB then ServiceNow provides a NOW platform to deploy this application. All of this case ServiceNow provides PaaS.
ServiceNow acts as a single unit which means that each user gets their own instance on which it runs applications as per their requirements. Thus customization of its instance to meet their needs is possible.
It simply says that ServiceNow has evolved itself from neither SaaS nor PaaS, in some cases ServiceNow provides IaaS in integration with Microsoft Azure. So we can say that ServiceNow is heading towards Anything As a Service (XaaS).