Management Information System (MIS) Practice Exam

Which of the following statements is true about the software as a service model?

1. The customer has to manage the licenses for the operating systems being used.

2. The customer can run his or her own applications that are typically designed using tools provided by the service provider.

3. The customer is provided with the basic capabilities of processing, storage, and networking.

4. The customer has no knowledge or control over the underlying infrastructure and has only limited ability to control or configure application-specific settings.

The correct answer is: The customer has no knowledge or control over the underlying infrastructure and has only limited ability to control or configure application-specific settings.

The statement that the customer has no knowledge or control over the underlying infrastructure and has only limited ability to control or configure application-specific settings accurately reflects a fundamental characteristic of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. In a SaaS environment, the service provider hosts and manages the infrastructure that supports the application, including the servers, storage, and connectivity. This means the customer does not need to worry about the physical hardware or the operating system that the software runs on. Instead, customers interact with the software through a web interface and are limited to configurations or settings that the service provider allows. This hands-off approach simplifies usage for the customer, as they do not have to manage updates, patches, or underlying infrastructure, allowing them to focus solely on the application itself. In contrast, the other statements do not accurately represent the SaaS model. For example, managing licenses for operating systems typically falls outside the scope of SaaS, where the provider manages software licensing. Running custom applications generally describes different models like Platform as a Service (PaaS) rather than SaaS. While SaaS provides basic processing, storage, and networking capabilities, the defining feature emphasized in the correct statement is the limited control the customer has over the infrastructure, which aligns