A cloud model in which you consume a finished application that the provider operates, Microsoft 365 for instance. Nearly everything is the provider's job; you look after your data, users and devices.
Also called software as a service.
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Terms in this definition
- Cloud model
Classification of cloud environments by where resources run and who has access to them. Public, private and hybrid cloud are the usual models, with multicloud as a further option.
- Provider
The organisation that shares data in OpenSharing. Recipients also see a provider as a Unity Catalog securable, from which shares can be mounted as catalogs.
- Microsoft 365
Formerly Office 365, Microsoft's software-as-a-service productivity suite. A Microsoft Entra tenant provides its identity, and its data is not governed by Azure RBAC.
- Job
A sequence of steps executed together on one agent or runner, or on the server for agentless work. While running, each occupies one of your parallel jobs.
Related terms
- CloudAppEvents
Holds enriched activity from Office 365 and connected SaaS apps for advanced hunting. Data arrives only through Defender for Cloud Apps and its Microsoft 365 connector; Purview Audit by itself doesn't fill it.
- Codeless Connector Framework
Lets you create SaaS data connectors for Microsoft Sentinel without writing code, by defining four things in sequence: the custom output table, the DCR, the connector's UI and its connection rules.
- Internet traffic routing policy
On a Virtual WAN hub, this routing intent setting makes Azure Firewall, a third-party next-generation firewall or a SaaS security product the single exit for traffic heading to the internet, by advertising a default route to everything attached. A hub may carry one such policy plus one private traffic policy.
- IoT Central
An IoT application platform delivered as SaaS; it does not do stream processing. Microsoft is retiring it: new applications can't be created from 23 September 2026 and existing ones run until 20 September 2029, with IoT Hub, the Device Provisioning Service and Microsoft Fabric as the recommended path.
- ISV
Short for independent software vendor. Such firms build SaaS products for their own customers on Fabric, and Microsoft's Fabric CI/CD guidance offers them a dedicated pattern based on one workspace per customer.
- Lakeflow Connect
Brings data into Azure Databricks with managed connectors for SaaS apps, files, streaming sources and databases, the last including CDC. The connectors run on serverless pipelines, and Unity Catalog governs them.
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Cloud access security broker (CASB) from Microsoft, providing discovery of SaaS apps, session control and protection of data.
- Microsoft Entra application gallery
Thousands of SaaS applications that Microsoft has already integrated, ready to add to your tenant as enterprise apps. Each comes with single sign-on and, where offered, automatic provisioning set up in advance.