For decades, companies have run software on their own infrastructure. The SaaS delivery model, where companies pay not for owning the software but for using it, changes that convention. In the SaaS scenario, a software provider is responsible for its availability (maintenance, scalability, disaster recovery), and companies pay for those services as they utilize the applications.

Microsoft offers resources for architects who need to explain the SaaS delivery model to potential customers, as well as the benefits and the impact to their current enterprise architectures, in the form of prescriptive guidance and architectural patterns. Such guidance also benefits software companies that want to deliver SaaS solutions and are looking for best practices and architectural advice for scalable, multiple-tenant-enabled applications.