2020 State of SaaSOps
The Impact and Implicationsof the SaaS Revolution

Our 2020 State of SaaSOps survey reveals that as more companies scale up their SaaS environments,
IT organizations are dealing with significant SaaS challenges around cost, complexity, and risk. The study
also confirms that IT organizations are turning to SaaSOps to deal with these challenges in a sustainable
and cost-effective manner.

SaaSOps provides IT with a disciplined approach to discovering, managing, and securing SaaS at scale,based on the use of centralized, automated tool sets. The results of the study indicate that as morecompanies adjust to the realities of managing SaaS at scale, SaaSOps has the potential to evolve into acore IT discipline—influencing strategic priorities, technology investments, and even job titles.

2020 State of SaaSOps

Table of Contents
Letter from Our CEO.........................................................................................................................................................................................3
Demographics. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................7
Key Findings...............................................................................................................................................................................................................9
SaaS Steps into the IT Spotlight..........................................................................................................................................................11
SaaS Adoption and Business Growth...........................................................................................................................................13
Combating COVID-19: SaaS Innovation
and Inspiration Win the Day.....................................................................................................................................................................15
Understanding the Attraction of SaaS..........................................................................................................................................18
The Trouble with SaaS: Taking Stock of Visibility,
Automation, and Security Challenges..........................................................................................................................................21
SaaS Visibility: Missed Opportunities and Missing Insights.................................................................................23
Manual Tasks: Making SaaS Harder Than It Needs to Be.....................................................................................25
SaaS Data Security: Learning to Balance Risk and Productivity.....................................................................27
SaaSOps: Keeping SaaS Apps on the Path to Value..................................................................................................34
The SaaSOps Framework: Processes and Priorities...................................................................................................36
5 Things to Know About Working with SaaSOps............................................................................................................37
SaaSOps Gives SaaS the Future It Deserves......................................................................................................................43
Methodology.............................................................................................................................................................................................................442

2020 State of SaaSOps

LETTER FROM OUR CEO

SaaSOps: Preparing IT for a new worldof technology challenges

When you look back at why 2020 was such a remarkable and challenging year, software as a service (SaaS)
probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. That’s true because of the world-changing events that seemed
to unfold on a daily basis, but it’s also true because SaaS is literally everywhere today, creating the experiencesthat define how we work, play, shop, learn, and socialize. SaaS is invisible because it’s ubiquitous.
But it’s worth taking a moment to understand why 2020 wasn’t just about business as usual for the adoption
and usage of SaaS. Someday, we’ll look back and realize this was actually a pivotal year for understanding
the true power of the SaaS model—and for giving IT organizations the tools they need to help SaaS live up
to its remarkable potential.

SaaS applications save the day
In the early part of the year, we watched SaaS power a historic workforce transformation. In just a matter ofweeks, businesses around the world leveraged SaaS platforms to shift employees out of traditional offices
and into distributed, mostly home-based work environments.
This was a tour de force for the SaaS model, which supplied the tools needed to keep workers connected,
engaged, and productive, and ensured these tools were affordable, even for the smallest businesses. In theprocess, SaaS apps helped to keep millions of people employed and productive during very uncertain andchallenging times.
But there’s a flip side to this story. While it’s less visible outside the IT space, it’s important to anyone whowants SaaS to continue living up to its full potential. It’s the story of SaaSOps.

3

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaSOps: Setting up SaaS for success at scale
Today, we’re seeing businesses adopt SaaS apps at an astounding pace. Since 2015, the number ofIT-sanctioned SaaS apps has increased tenfold, and there’s much more to come: It’s expected that by 2025,
85% of business apps will be SaaS-based. And as businesses bet their futures on SaaS, there’s a lot riding
on an IT organization’s ability to manage, integrate, and secure SaaS environments that may include dozens
or even hundreds of apps.
This growing complexity is turning the path to success with SaaS into a bumpy and unpredictable ride. IT
organizations in particular are discovering that managing and securing SaaS environments at scale can be avery difficult and time-consuming process. Ad hoc approaches to SaaS management tasks are breaking
down; concerns over cost, security, and lack of control are on the rise. Such challenges may feel likegrowing pains today, but they’ll eventually create real barriers to managing SaaS cost and risk.

IT organizations are discovering that managing and securing
SaaS environments at scale can be a very difficult
and time-consuming process.

Shining a light on SaaSOps practices
The good news is that IT organizations are uniting behind a proven solution to their SaaS challenges:
SaaSOps, a discipline that offers a proven framework for discovering, managing, and securing SaaS
environments through centralized and automated operations, is helping to reduce friction, improve
collaboration, and create better employee experiences. But there’s still a burning need for data-driven
insights into how and why IT organizations are leveraging SaaSOps tools and methods.
We think the 2020 State of SaaSOps report will go a long way toward closing this information gap. This
year’s report is based on a truly exceptional body of research: More than 650 IT leaders and practitioners,
representing a wide range of company sizes and industries, contributed insights and opinions based on
their own SaaSOps experiences.

42020 State of SaaSOps

This is the largest body of data ever assembled on how modern IT organizations deal with thechallenges of managing SaaS at scale. It’s also the culmination of more than a decade of experiencecollecting, analyzing, and publishing research, and educating the market on these topics—with our
research appearing on CIO.com, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, CNBC, ZDNet, andcountless other media outlets.

[SaaSOps pushes] traditional IT to be more proactive,
more oriented towards business goals, and even more mindfulof how to use technology to empower the end user.
—IT Manager, transportation company with 400 employees

Preparing for your future with SaaSOps
We designed the 2020 State of SaaSOps report to give IT organizations the insights and practical tips
they need to understand this issue and take informed action. The report confirms that IT leaders andpractitioners see SaaSOps as a necessity given the challenges of managing SaaS at scale. It also showsthat automation—a key capability for a SaaSOps platform—has a game-changing impact on how IT
manages SaaS environments.

The 2020 State of SaaSOps report confirmsthat IT leaders and practitioners see SaaSOps as a necessity
given the challenges of managing SaaS at scale.

5

2020 State of SaaSOps

Finally, our research establishes that SaaSOps has evolved into a core IT discipline and career priority:
30% of practitioners have already integrated the term into their job titles or plan to do so. These individuals
believe that SaaSOps is truly the future of IT, and they’re putting themselves on the cutting edge of SaaSOps
adoption.
We have no doubts that we’ll look back at 2020 and recognize it as the point when SaaS truly took its placeas the future of IT. Thanks to SaaSOps, 2020 will also be the year when IT gave SaaS a secure andsustainable future. We hope the 2020 State of SaaSOps report shows you why SaaSOps is such an
essential part of this story and that it helps you prepare your IT organization for success with it.

David Politis
CEO and Founder, BetterCloud

Enablement of SaaSOps in our environmentis critical to the overall success of our company.
— IT Director, healthcare company with 950 employees

62020 State of SaaSOps

Demographics
During April to May 2020, BetterCloud surveyed 676 IT and security professionals. These individuals ranged
in seniority from C-level executives to front-line practitioners and included both IT and security department
roles. The respondents’ companies represented a wide range of company sizes and industries; most ofthese were established businesses with significant experience using SaaS apps. Almost all of thosesurveyed use either G Suite or Office 365 as their primary cloud productivity suite.

2+5+415201935 19+30+813
2+69+29 45+5+50
2% 5%

1-9 10-49

35%

4%

50-99

15%

More than
1,000

19%

30%

Individual
contributor

Manager/
mid-level

100-199

COMPANY
SIZE

ROLE

20%

200-499

13%

Director

19%8%500-999

VP

2%

45%

Other

29%

30%

C-levelBoth IT andsecurity

50%
IT

Office 365

DEPT.
(IT VS.
SECURITY)

PRIMARY
CLOUD SUITE69%

G Suite5%

Security7

2020 State of SaaSOps

GROWTH STATUS IN 2019

INDUSTRY

683++72147241++6106164101118++231
Doing layoffs

8%

Banking, financial services,or insurance

6%

Growing headcount at less than 5% or staying the same

3%

Education - K12/higher ed

7%

8%

Healthcare services

Growing headcount at more than 5% but less than 20%

Hotels, restaurants, or leisure

14%

2%

8%

Manufacturing

7%

Media

Growing headcount 20% or more per year24%

Non-profits

Online commerce

Getting bought by another organization

6%

1%

2%

10%

Other

6%

Professional services

Merging with or buying another organization

16%

Don’t know

10%Real estate

4%

Retail4%

11%

Software-as-a-service (SaaS)

None of the above

18%

Tech-related hardware

16%

Telecommunications

2%

3%

Transportation

Utilities

Wholesale/distribution

COMPANY AGE

2%

1%

LENGTH OF TIME USING SAAS

1+16+2558 3+25+2745
1%

1-2 years

3%

16%

Less than 1 year

3-6 years

25%

27%

1-3 years

More than
8 years58%

11 or
more years

25%

7-10 years

45%

4-7 years

82020 State of SaaSOps

Key Findings
TOP INSIGHTS

2x

SaaSOps as amarket has
clearly emerged.

more total SaaS,
custom SaaS, andIT-owned apps

SaaSOps is the
future oftechnology.

Its necessity is driven by scale,

The number of total apps used

IT professionals strongly

and the line between IT andby companies with SaaSOps

believe SaaSOps will continue

security is blurring.

platforms as compared toto grow in importance and size.

non-SaaSOps platform users

SAAS USAGE80

Top 2 Motivators for Using
More SaaS Apps

Average number of SaaS apps used
Increase productivity

21

Average number of custom*
SaaS apps used*(e.g. an app developed internally, but
hosted in AWS in a SaaS model forinternal users)

Reduce costs

Companies estimate that 70% of the business apps they use today are SaaS-based.
By 2025, they expect 85% of the business apps they use will be SaaS-based.

9

2020 State of SaaSOps

Key Findings
IT CHALLENGES AND CONCERNS

89

1:

vs.

Average ratio of

Balancing security vs. productivity

1 IT person : 89 employees

Respondents rated themselves in the middle, skewing
slightly more toward productivity.

TOP 5

TOP 3

Most crucial
challenges to solve

Security concerns
for IT teams

1. Files stored in cloud storage

1. Manually onboarding and1. Sensitive files

Places where
sensitive data lives
2. Email

offboarding users

3. Devices

2. Securing sensitive data/files

4. Chat apps

3. Managing all SaaS

5. Password managers

TOP 2

shared publicly
2. Former employees
retaining data accessapps in use

EMPLOYEE ISSUES

7.12
hours
Average time to offboard auser across SaaS apps

Almost everyone (92%)
gives new employees access todevices on their first day.

Entitlements & app
training (~40%) are muchless common on day one.

10

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaS Steps into
the IT Spotlight2020 was a pivotal year for the SaaS market. Most companies already recognized how SaaS apps could
make them more efficient and help them benefit from the pace of technology innovation. But nobody could
have predicted that SaaS apps would also provide a critical lifeline for businesses caught in the fallout froma global pandemic.
That was especially true for companies forced to move from office-based to virtual teams. In this scenario,
and in many others, SaaS apps and services played a critical role in keeping businesses operating andworkers employed during the pandemic.

[SaaSOps] will be critical as more and more companies move to
SaaS offerings and potentially more companies remain remote.
— CTO, media company with 200 employees

112020 State of SaaSOps

While SaaS continues to save the day for many businesses, even more organizations are ready to migrate
entirely to SaaS applications—or to get as close as possible to this goal. According to our research,companies today say they’re using five times as many SaaS apps than they were in 2017, and 10 times as
many compared to 2015. These companies also tell us that SaaS applications now account for 70% of their
total software usage, and that just 15% of their software will be non-SaaS products by 2025.

80

AVERAGE # OF SAAS APPS USED

12

8
2015

2016

16
2017

2020

The use of unsanctioned SaaS apps, otherwise known as “shadow IT,” is one of the most daunting
challenges for any IT administrator. Employees adopt unsanctioned SaaS apps for a wide range of reasons,but most people do so because they believe an unsanctioned app will improve their job performance—andthat IT can’t or won’t support this goal. This makes shadow IT a key sign of a disconnect between IT and its
customers within the business, and of changes in the business-IT relationship.

Progressive IT organizations understand that shadow IT isn’t a problem—
it’s a symptom of a broken IT-business relationship.

SAASOPS INSIGHT

The best cure is to rebuild employee trust by partnering with shadow
IT users to bring their apps into the light—securing them, managing
them, and offering benefits such as integrations and upgrades.

122020 State of SaaSOps

47

21

Average # of

Average # of

IT-owned apps

custom SaaS apps

in 2020

used in 2020

Survey respondents reported an average of 47 SaaS apps under direct IT ownership this year, compared tojust 17 apps in 2017 and eight in 2015. This is a trend where positive momentum can be self-sustaining: As IT
takes advantage of opportunities to deliver value through integration, shadow app owners feel more
incentivized to come forward with similar requests.

SaaS Adoption and Business Growth
People have a knack for accumulating things over time. Our research shows that companies have the same
habit, especially when it comes to software. While younger companies typically start out with a few dozen
apps, it doesn’t take long for a growing organization to end up with 100 or more apps running within its walls.
Young companies (one to two years old) start out with 29 apps on average. By the time they’re three to six
years old, that number spikes to 103. The number comes down after that, likely because of consolidation.

TOTAL SAAS APPS

26+10080+76
Years in business

1-2

29

103

3-6

7-10

11+

83

79

13

2020 State of SaaSOps

Of course, with age comes maturity. We also discovered that companies approaching their second decade inbusiness get serious about consolidating applications. Not surprisingly, large companies still use many more
SaaS apps than smaller companies. Larger organizations also tend to add their own custom apps to the mix.

I think that traditional systems administration is slowly merging
with SaaSOps and will continue to do so as more and more products
and productivity suites move to SaaS-only models.
– IT Director and Information Security Officer, advertising company with 600 employees

2xmore SaaS,
custom SaaS, andIT-owned apps

How many more total apps are used by companies that have
SaaSOps platforms as compared to those that don’t

Not surprisingly, large companies use many

The longer that companies use SaaS, the more SaaS

more SaaS apps and custom apps than SMBs do.

and custom apps they use.

< 50 employees< 1 year16

1450-99 employees

1-3 years2449

100-199 employees

4-7 years

47
200-499 employees> 8 years

62

108
145

500-999 employees93> 1,000 employees

177

14

2020 State of SaaSOps

Combating COVID-19:
SaaS Innovation
and IT Inspiration
Win the Day

As the COVID-19 pandemic gained momentum in the spring of 2020, most U.S. businesses closed theiroffices and other non-essential facilities. Many businesses weathered the shutdown and avoided mass
layoffs by shifting from more traditional workplace settings to work-from-home arrangements, distributed
teams, and virtual workplaces.

SaaSOps will be the heart and soul of IT...Covid-19 has forced companies
to adopt SaaS-based tools, and now they must continue to change
and adapt or they will not survive.
– VP of Global IT, advertising company with 2,000 employees

Over the past decade, a number of infrastructure and software advances have combined to give businesses
and employees everything they needed to more easily carry out this shift. SaaS apps played a critical role inthis process, giving employees instant access to high-quality, low-cost productivity suites, collaboration
tools, data- and document-sharing services, and other key applications, as well as by keeping theminformed, engaged, and productive in home-office settings.

15

2020 State of SaaSOps

Pivoting an entire organization, even a smaller one, from a physical to a fully virtual work environment
in a matter of weeks is an impressive feat. Our research shows many IT organizations faced changing
organizational priorities even as they worked to prepare businesses for virtual arrangements:

NEW PRIORITIES SINCE COVID

TOP 3

26+1254+3055+1018+2526+348

Upgrade VPNs to improve performance26%

new priorities

Adopt new SaaS apps

12%

Use more video conferencing

54%

Make IT budget cuts

30%

Use more videoconferencing

Better secure remote workplaces

55%

Reduce IT staff

10%

Reduce non-IT staff

18%

Make IT’s role within the business more prominent

Better secure
remote workplaces

25%

Consolidate SaaS app functionality into fewer subscriptions

26%

Make IT decisions that directly impact profitability

34%

No changes

Make IT decisions that
directly impact profitability

8%16

2020 State of SaaSOps

The type of rapid digital transformation that took place in the spring of 2020 couldn’t have happened without
the support of a versatile, responsive, highly innovative SaaS app ecosystem. In fact, these tools worked sowell that many survey respondents are considering whether to turn these temporary arrangements into a morestrategic (and usually more limited) shift towards distributed workplaces. Companies we surveyed also believethat long-term public health concerns will require businesses to keep their virtual workplace capabilities on
standby, ready to play a bigger role when needed or perhaps supporting a permanent embrace of lowerdensity work environments.

Covid-19 has shown that we need to be
more flexible in providing access to company data while
making sure we keep our security protocols in place.
– Director of IT, restaurant company with 1,200 employees

SAASOPS INSIGHT

The modern, distributed workforce is here to stay—and, as a result, so is the need to manage, deploy, monitor,and secure SaaS environments on an unprecedented scale.

17

2020 State of SaaSOps

Understanding
the Attractionof SaaS

The promise of SaaS is that it offers organizations higher productivity and more collaboration, andcan help create more engaged employees. In this “nirvana state,” employees can work securely,
stay productive and motivated, and help drive organizational success.

MOTIVATIONS TO USE MORE SAAS
Reduce costs

35+5423+327+103+1816

TOP 2

35%

Increase productivity

54%

Motivators for Using
More SaaS Apps

Improve employee experience

23%Enter new markets

3%

Increase security

27%

Increase productivity

Grow revenues

10%

Attract and retain the best talent

3%

Speed up app deployments

18%

Enable a remote workplace

16%

Reduce costs

18

5040+ 2659+ 3154+ 2053+
7525+ 3158+ 1960+ 2252+

2020 State of SaaSOps

Those motivators shift over time forsome organizations. For example,
companies new to SaaS initially tend touse it to increase security. As they
continue using it, the motivation shifts
to increasing productivity.

59%

54%

50%

53%

40%

26%

31%

20%

INCREASE SECURITY
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY<1 yr

1-3 yrs

4-7 yrs>8 yrsLength of time on SaaS

75%

Young companies (one to two years
old) use SaaS to improve the employee
experience, not to reduce costs. For
companies in business three years or
more, the motivation becomes toincrease productivity.

60%

58%

52%

31%

25%

19%

IMPROVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCEINCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

1-2

3-6

7-10

22%

11+

Years in business19

2020 State of SaaSOps

Assuming a new SaaS app meets cost and feature/function requirements, the top three criteriathat respondents care most about are:Security

Integrations

Ease of use

WHAT ORGANIZATIONS CARE ABOUT MOST
2020 FINDINGS

22+4327+63 38+4730

Ease of use

22%

Security

43%

Native integrations into existing tech stack

27%

Customer support

6%

End user training

3%2017 TOP 3 FINDINGS

Ease of use

38%

Security

47%

Native integrations into existing tech stack

30%

20

2020 State of SaaSOps

The Trouble with SaaS:
Taking Stock of
Visibility, Automation,and Security Challenges

One of the defining traits of the SaaS model is its ability to tear down traditional barriers to adopting and using
software. This is why businesses were able to rely on employees to set up their own home offices virtuallyovernight, at little or no cost to the business or its IT resources. But it’s also why SaaS presents significant
challenges to IT organizations charged with managing and securing a company’s SaaS app environment.

The SaaS model’s ability to tear down traditional barriers
to adopting and using software has beenboth a blessing and a curse for IT organizations.

21

2020 State of SaaSOps

SAASOPS INSIGHTAs IT organizations scale their SaaS environments to manage more apps
across bigger groups of users, they’ll encounter new SaaS management
challenges—and significant new sources of cost, complexity, and risk.

While some of these challenges deal entirely with technology questions, others are a function of therelationship—good or bad—between an IT organization and its business customers. All of these challenges
tend to get more costly and complex, and much harder to solve, as organizations scale up their SaaS
environments to manage more apps for more users.
Our research identified three issues that exemplify the challenges IT organizations face when administering
SaaS apps vs. managing and securing SaaS apps, especially as they scale up their SaaS environments:

1
2
3

Disagreements over the true extent and nature of unsanctioned
app usage, often combined with missed opportunities to gain
better insights into these issues

An overreliance on tedious, labor-intensive tasks, many ofwhich could be automated relatively easily

Pervasive, and potentially dangerous, data security issues

Let’s look more closely at what the 2020 State of SaaSOps report uncovered about thesechallenges and their IT impacts.

22

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaS Visibility: Missed Opportunities
and Missing Insights		
The first step any IT group can take toward effective SaaS management is getting an accurate app count.
Overall, 72% of the professionals we surveyed said they were “very certain” of the total number of SaaS
apps in use at their organizations.
Some stakeholders, however, are more confident in their app counts than others. Among the security
professionals surveyed, for example, only 43% were very confident in their organizations’ SaaS discovery
capabilities, as compared to 71% of IT professionals. And while 88% of C-level executives said they were“very certain” on this point, that number fell to just 59% for individual contributors.

% OF PEOPLE OR COMPANIES “VERY CERTAIN” OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF SAASAPPS IN THEIR ORGANIZATION

45+71 43+71 59+88

Companies less than a year old

45%

Companies 1 - 3 years old

71%

Security teams

43%

IT

71%

Individual contributors

59%

C-Level88%

23

2020 State of SaaSOps

One in three companies surveyed aren’t searching their networks
for unsanctioned end user app subscriptions.
SAASOPS INSIGHT

Monitoring SaaS app usage and tracking end user app subscriptions isn’t abouthunting down and penalizing employees who use shadow IT. It’s simply a basic
SaaS security and management task, and an essential IT activity.

It’s noteworthy that nearly one-third of the companies we surveyed aren’t searching regularly for end user
app subscriptions on their organizations’ networks. That’s a significant number of businesses that aren’t
performing a basic SaaS security and management task.
On the other hand, it’s also clear that only a few IT teams (9%) are treating unsanctioned app usage purely
as a policy violation, which would do nothing to improve the underlying relationship between IT andbusiness users. Instead, IT’s motivations are more procedural:
WHY COMPANIES ROUTINELY SEARCHED THEIR NETWORKTO FIND NEW END USER APP SUBSCRIPTIONS

7+49+ 16+1431+9

To know which apps users want to use

7%

To find duplicate accounts on the same app

4%

To standardize app functionality from multiple SaaS apps to a single one

9%

To stop the use of non IT-sanctioned SaaS apps

9%

To optimize SaaS app spending

16%

To identify potential misuse or violations of security policy

14%

Not applicable because there is no routine search

31%

Don’t know

9%24

2020 State of SaaSOps

Additionally, we asked respondents how actively they’re tracking usage of unauthorized applications—and many of them aren’t tracking this activity at all. When asked to respond to the statement“We identify employees who use unauthorized apps,” 51% of respondents either disagreed withthat statement or felt neutral.

Company size(# of employees)# of third-party apps with read/
write access to Google Drive

0 to 19935

200-499

69

500+

214

Anonymized BetterCloud customer data

76+24
76%

of people are concerned

about non IT-sanctioned apps
creating security issues.

Manual Tasks: Making SaaS Harder
Than It Needs to Be
This year has been full of reminders that modern IT organizations are an extremely valuable and strategic
business resource. However, 34% of the technology pros we surveyed spend half a week or more performing
SaaS management tasks manually. Automation is hardly a radical new concept for IT management tasks, andif it’s missing here, it’s unlikely to show up for more difficult and time-consuming tasks, either.

[SaaSOps is about] automation, automation, automation, and security.
– CIO, manufacturing company with 500 employees

252020 State of SaaSOps

User offboarding is a great example of a task where automation pays off in a big way. Today, offboarding
without the benefit of a SaaSOps platform requires an average of 7.12 hours per user—and in some cases,
offboarding a single employee can consume 16 hours or more of an IT practitioner’s time.

7.12 hours
Average time to offboard
a user across SaaS apps
SAASOPS INSIGHT

Offboarding is a task that every IT organization can and should automate.
Those that adopt a SaaSOps platform can expect to discover additional
opportunities to automate labor-intensive SaaS management tasks.

It’s a very different story for IT organizations that reported using SaaSOps platforms to automate theoffboarding process, which ultimately helps them recover precious hours for team members to spend on
more rewarding and strategic tasks. One thing to note: The larger the company, the more complex it is tointegrate all apps that every user touches. Because larger companies have hundreds of applications, theprocess to get them discovered and integrated into a SaaSOps platform is still very much a work in progress.
SAASOPS AUTOMATION OFFBOARDS

34%

136%

<200

200-499

FASTER

FASTER

151% 49%
FASTER

FASTER

500-999>1,000Total number of employees

Similar gains applied to companies that automate their SaaS-related help desk and support functions, suchas account management, provisioning, and security. At companies with more than 1,000 employees andabove-average SaaS use, SaaSOps automation reduced the mean number of help desk tickets from 74 per
week to less than 43. This is a remarkable workload reduction.

26

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaS Data Security: Learning toBalance Risk and Productivity
Everybody in IT today understands why data security is a very serious business with very little room forerror. But the traditional security “lockdown” mindset is increasingly at odds with a business culture that
relies on collaboration, sharing, and the agility to compete and innovate.

The future is now.
Organizations need to begin finding ways to balance the ease of use
and productivity that many SaaS apps allow for with the additional
security concerns they impose.
— Information Security Analyst, manufacturing company with 250 employees

In fact, SaaS applications demand a more flexible approach to data security. Typically, IT assumes thatsensitive data is more likely to be found in a handful of commonly used SaaS apps, such as email andcloud storage services.
Businesses with less experience using SaaS are more likely to focus on five types of SaaS app they
believe to be the top data security risks:

TOP 5

Data security risks

Cloud storage
files

Email

Devices

Chat apps

Password
managers

27

2020 State of SaaSOps

Experienced SaaS users, however, are more likely to recognize the truth: Sensitive data can live anywhere andeverywhere in a SaaS environment. This is why we gave respondents no less than 16 options for naming their
top data security hot spots—and why every last one of these options got a significant number of responses!
WHERE SENSITIVE DATA LIVES

81+5080+5666+56 +7044+4161+2926+5538+50

Files stored in cloud storage like Google Drive81%

Calendars

50%

Email

80%

CRM (e.g., Salesforce)

56%

Chat (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams)

66%

Video conferencing (e.g., Zoom, Hangouts Meet)

56%

Groups (e.g., Google Groups, Office 365 groups)

56%

Devices (e.g., laptops, mobile devices, whiteboards)

70%

Agile software development tools like JIRA

44%

Project management tools like Asana or Trello

41%

Password managers

61%

Survey tools (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics)

29%

ITSM (e.g., ServiceNow)

26%

Ticketing software

55%

HRIS

38%

Github repositories

50%

28

2020 State of SaaSOps

Sensitive data lives everywhere in a SaaS environment—and a SaaS data
security strategy must be comprehensive if it’s going to be effective.

Data can live everywhere these days. SaaS apps have become systems of record for companies of all sizes.
Inevitably, each application you add will become a source for sensitive data. The breadth and sprawl of theapps you use is limitless, and many apps live outside of IT’s direct purview. While sensitive data has always
lived within SaaS apps, many people are only beginning to understand the extent of it.
Organizations that focus their security efforts on certain SaaS apps at the expense of others are practicing
what amounts to “security by coincidence.” Maybe an attacker will choose the “right” place to attack, maybe
they won’t. This was never a prudent data security stance, but it’s especially risky as attackers get moreresourceful and the threat landscape becomes increasingly diverse and dynamic.

SaaS security priorities: automation and education
The nature of SaaS data security makes a lockdown mentality impractical and ineffective. A worthwhile
solution should balance security and user productivity, while also accounting for the diverse and far-flungnature of potential security risks.

Automated discovery and monitoring tools
are a good starting point for a realistic approach
to SaaS data security.

29

2020 State of SaaSOps

Automated tools for discovering potential security issues and for monitoring compliance with security bestpractices, such as those found in a modern SaaSOps platform, are a good starting point for a realistic data
security stance. Automated discovery and monitoring can alert IT to high-risk resource sharing practices(such as those identified below) and guide efforts to educate users on security policies and best practices.

Company size
(number of
employees)

Average # of alerts for
public email distribution
lists

Average # of alerts for
public calendars

Average # of alerts forforwarding work email
to personal emails

0 to 199

115

5

45

200-499

314

10

96

500-4,999

1,376

38

340

5,000+

3,551

153

594

Reducing exposure to SaaS management mistakes
As SaaS app environments become more complex, routine IT management tasks are more vulnerable tomistakes and oversights that create security risks. Many respondents point to employee offboarding—theprocess of revoking a departing employee’s access to systems and data stores—as an especially

36+64 56+44

problematic SaaS management task:

36%

56%

of respondents were less thanof respondents voiced

fully confident that ex-employees

similar concerns about

were always locked out of fileaccess to department-

sharing and storage apps.

specific applications.

30

2020 State of SaaSOps

Once again, automation and monitoring tools are significant pieces of the security puzzle here.

48+52

But too many IT organizations clearly lack necessary capabilities in this area:48%

say they rarely/never oronly sometimes monitor

to prevent data exposure.

IT organizations often reveal a gap between what they think they know about
their SaaS environments and what they actually know.

It’s also important for IT organizations to invest in tools for discovering and understanding the SaaS
environments under their management. More than once, respondents put themselves on the wrong side ofa gap between what they think they know about their SaaS environments and what they actually know
based on insights from BetterCloud user metrics.

31

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaSOps will continue to grow its footprint in organizations,prompting a more sophisticated monitoring and management of SaaS apps.
– VP of SaaSOps, software company with 200 employees

For example, when looking at the enforcement of least-privileged access policies, IT practitioners
consistently underestimated the number of users with SaaS app super admin privileges:

Company size
(number of
employees)

Estimated # of super admins
per app by non-SaaSOps users,
according to survey

Average # of super admins,
according to anonymized
BetterCloud customer data

0 to 199

80% think they have 3 or less5200-49965% think they have 3 or less

7

500+

48% think they have 3 or less11

A similar disconnect emerges around perception vs. reality for the number of files with potentially sensitive
data that are accessible to the public:

Company size
(number of
employees)

Estimated # of confidential/PII files
shared publicly, per week,
according to survey# of alerts for confidential files
with SSNs or credit card numbers
shared publicly, per week,
according to anonymized
BetterCloud customer data

0 to 19998923

200-499

10

1,399

500+

128

12,45432

41+60+54

2020 State of SaaSOps

Finally, respondents identified end users as the source for a number of key security risks. While there’s
a sense that users don’t focus on security as much as they should—and a hesitation to trust users thatshare company data—most end user security lapses involve honest mistakes as opposed to grossnegligence or malicious intent.

41%

say users who fail or forget to ask
IT for permission to use apps canpose a source of risk.

60%

41%

60%
54%

think end users should pay more
attention to file sharing settings.

54%

have a less-than-positive attitude
toward trusting users to sharecompany data responsibly.

On a related note, the line between IT and security appears to be blurring: 45% of respondents say theirdepartment does both IT and security. And while security didn’t always fall on the IT organization, the natureof SaaS has created a new set of security responsibilities for IT that didn’t exist before, including defending
against insider threats, securing data, and enforcing least-privileged access policies.

33

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaSOps: Keeping
SaaS Apps on thePath to Value

One of the goals of the 2020 State of SaaSOps report was to understand the true size and complexity of
the challenges IT organizations face managing and securing SaaS app environments. It’s especially
important to recognize issues with cost, complexity, and risk that are getting more difficult to handle asbusinesses scale their SaaS environments—and that could, if left unchecked, eventually force businesses torethink their commitment to SaaS.
In fact, many of the challenges we’ve discussed here do seem to be tied to the emergence of bigger andmore complex SaaS environments. A number of IT organizations still lack the tools and methods needed todeliver solutions, and there’s a definite risk that adopting SaaS at scale will make things much worse before
they get better.

SAASOPS INSIGHT

SaaSOps gives IT organizations a comprehensive disciplinefor discovering, managing, and securing SaaS apps at scale,using centralized and automated tools.

34

2020 State of SaaSOps

But IT organizations are taking a proactive approach to solving the challenges that come with managing
and securing SaaS at scale. Specifically, these organizations are adopting SaaSOps: a discipline fordiscovering, managing, and securing SaaS apps, using centralized and automated tools and a standard
framework for applying these tools.

SaaSOps and IT will be synonymous. There’s no separating thetwo already in most modern/young companies.
— IT Manager, insurance company with 270 employees

SaaSOps is proving its value for managing SaaS environments at scale, and IT organizations are responding
with a groundswell of support for SaaSOps tools, methods, and problem-solving approaches. In fact,
SaaSOps appears to be taking a significant step in 2020: establishing itself as a core IT discipline andshaping how IT practitioners think about their skill sets, careers, and even job titles.
All of this shows that SaaSOps is making a difference where it matters: in real-world situations where IT
practitioners need proven and practical tools for managing SaaS at scale. These changes will help prepare
IT for a future where SaaS shapes and dominates the technology landscape.

SAASOPS INSIGHT

Just as SaaS is driving a revolution in how businesses deploy
and use software, SaaSOps is driving a fundamental shift in how
IT organizations—and even individual IT practitioners—approach
SaaS management and security issues.

35

2020 State of SaaSOps

The SaaSOps Framework:
Processes and Priorities
The SaaSOps Framework is the key to understanding SaaSOps as a living, breathing highly adaptable
IT discipline. It aligns with each of the three SaaSOps functional pillars—discovery, management, andsecurity—to help IT assess and implement SaaSOps tools. It also ties in key processes that organizations
can use to transform and elevate their SaaS performance.

SaaS Discovery
Application Insights

Spend Reporting

Usage Analytics

SaaS Management

SaaS Security

Identity & Access

Least-Privileged Access

User Lifecycle Management

File Security

Spend Optimization

Insider Threat Protection

Application Configuration

Incident Response

Visibility & Auditability

Regulatory Compliance

SaaS Transformation
Org Structure, Roles & Skills

End User Training & Support

Change Management

The real question, of course, is exactly how IT organizations apply the SaaSOps Framework andother resources to solve their SaaS challenges and to make SaaS management simpler and lessexpensive. Based on research and conversations with practitioners, five key trends are shaping
SaaSOps use and adoption in the field.

36

2020 State of SaaSOps

5 Things to Know
About Working
with SaaSOps

1. IT organizations have defined a“SaaSOps tech stack” for managing
and securing a SaaS environment.					IT organizations occupy a wide range of positions on an emerging SaaSOps tech maturity curve.

81+7048+2225

Most have implemented native admin consoles.

81%

Most have implemented scripts.

70%

Nearly half have implemented Identity as a Service (IDaaS) tools for their SaaS environment.

48%

About one in five are using Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs).

22%

A quarter are either using integrated SaaSOps solutions or plan to adopt one.

25%

Across the spectrum, the most effective SaaSOps stacks appear to be those that move proactively
to acquire and implement a complete set of tools rather than those that make piecemeal acquisitions
only as pain points emerge.

372020 State of SaaSOps

SAASOPS INSIGHT

Organizations expect a modern SaaSOps platform to give them the best ofboth worlds: first-class data security tools plus a no-compromises approach toinnovation and productivity.

2. Automation is a core SaaSOps function,but only a handful of IT organizations havecompleted this journey.
Most respondents (75%) are still automating operational processes, compared to just 9% that say they’redone. Organizations with a longer history of using SaaS also have longer and more complex automation
priorities to address. By comparison, SaaSOps users tend to have a higher level of automation maturity
across the board.

Company size
(number of
employees)

Time needed to offboard one user
without automation

Average amount of time a company
with a SaaSOps platform was
required to execute automatedoffboarding workflows

0 to 199

3 hours

12 minutes

200-499

7 hours, 30 minutes

1 hour, 10 minutes

500+

5 hours, 20 minutes

38 minutes

SAASOPS INSIGHT

38

2020 State of SaaSOps

3. SaaSOps challenges IT organizations to thinkcarefully about the balance between security
and productivity, though the latter is gradually
coming out on top.
To some extent, how IT strikes the balance between security and productivity depends on its industry
sector, but there’s a gradual trend in favor of productivity. We believe that by this time next year, SaaSOps
will support an even more pronounced tilt towards productivity.

vs.

Balancing security vs. productivity
Respondents rated themselves in the middle, skewing
slightly more toward productivity.

This doesn’t mean IT is ready to discount security as a top priority; it simply reflects the role that SaaS plays
in supporting employee productivity, collaboration, and engagement. Security will always be imperative, but
productivity gets to the reason why most companies implement SaaS apps in the first place.

Security is essential, but productivity is the motivating factor
behind why most companies turn to SaaS apps in the first place.

39

2020 State of SaaSOps

1815+2817 3935+361912156+143526

4. How IT implements SaaSOps is consistent with ateam’s own pursuit of modern priorities and practices.
As we pointed out earlier, very few IT groups are pressing a traditional agenda focused on order-taking,
maintenance, and gatekeeping duty. Instead, 62% of respondents said their IT groups are focused on
innovation, revenue growth, and creating superior user experiences.

50+50 42+58
WHEN AN IT ORGANIZATION ADOPTS A SAASOPS PLATFORM:

50%

42%

are more likely to emphasize

are less likely to cite tech repair

user experience as a priority.

and maintenance as primary tasks.

On an individual basis, respondents tend to select priority tasks based on their job role, but these are
generally consistent with a self-image now anchored firmly on their strategic importance and impact.
39%

35% 36%

TOP THREE CAREERGOALS FORINDIVIDUALS
C-levelVP
Director
Manager/mid-level
Individual contributor

35%

28%

18%

15%

26%

17% 17%

19%

12%

15%

14%

6%

Create relationships
with teams throughout
the business

Be strategic rather
than tactical

Automate mundane,
manual work40

2020 State of SaaSOps

5. S
 aaSOps gives IT an important set oftools for delivering on the promise of SaaSand creating a modern digital workplace.
From onboarding and training to enhancing productivity, SaaSOps platforms appear to generate value fromSaaS applications faster while ensuring that value translates directly into strategic business outcomes.
Nearly three out of four SaaSOps platform users, for example, agree with the idea that they’re using SaaS to
create a modern digital workplace for users and, in the process, improving end user productivity.

SAASOPS INSIGHT

SaaSOps platforms don’t just benefit IT organizations. By maximizing SaaS
performance and productivity, a SaaSOps platform can also improve employee
productivity and engagement, and move the needle on a company’s
profitability and performance.

WHEN IT GIVES NEW EMPLOYEES ACCESS TO SAAS APPS

40%

before first day

145%

by EOD, day 1

41

2020 State of SaaSOps

ON DAY ONE, WHAT RESOURCES DOES AN EMPLOYEEGET ACCESS TO FOR SAAS APPS VS. NON SAAS APPS?

92+ 74843444+ 74857990+ 3447

Corporate-owned devices (e.g., laptop)

92%
92%

SaaS apps

74%

84%

Entitlements

34%

44%

Group membership

74%

85%

Calendars

79%

90%

SaaS apps training

34%

47%

Does not use a SaaSOps platform
Uses a SaaSOps platform

SaaSOps accelerates the process of getting value
from SaaS and ensures that value translates
into strategic business outcomes.

42

2020 State of SaaSOps

SaaSOps Gives SaaSthe Future It Deserves

If there’s one word that describes
the state of SaaSOps, it’s momentum.
SaaS has already reshaped almost every aspect of the technology industry, from how teams build software
to how consumers use it. And now, at a critical stage in the evolution and impact of SaaS, SaaSOps has
earned increased loyalty, support, and budgets from a sizable and growing set of IT organizations. SaaSOps
is even influencing the evolution of IT job titles: 30% of the respondents to our survey already have
SaaSOps in their job title or plan to include it soon.
The momentum around SaaSOps isn’t being driven by hype or hot air. SaaSOps is gaining ground because
it’s necessary; it offers practical and highly effective solutions to increasingly urgent IT challenges. As SaaS
environments struggle with the impacts of app sprawl, surging adoption, and business growth, SaaSOps
gives IT a single framework for solving all of these problems. From management and discovery toautomation and security, SaaSOps was designed to take the pain out of working with SaaS at scale. It also
gives IT an effective set of tools for managing SaaS without sacrificing its new emphasis as a strategic
business function.
In every way that matters, SaaSOps offers tangible IT value to teams, individual practitioners, and otherbusiness technology stakeholders. And by solving the challenges that come with adopting SaaS at scale,SaaSOps is quite literally securing the future for software as a service.

SaaSOps is quite literally securing the future
for software as a service.
43

2020 State of SaaSOps

Methodology
This survey was conducted online from April 15, 2020 to May 15, 2020. We collected data from IT
and security professionals who were personally involved in one or more of the following activities
related to SaaS apps: approving or making final buying decisions; researching and recommending
apps; determining requirements for new apps; supporting end users; managing, deploying, or
securing apps; or handling vendor relationships and/or procurement. Respondents consisted ofmembers of our IT community (including our Slack community and daily newsletter subscribers),
BetterCloud customers, and non-customers.
To report product data, we analyzed and anonymized data from thousands of BetterCloudcustomers across a variety of company sizes and industries. The product data represents customer
activity from January 1, 2020 to July 3, 2020.

About BetterCloud
BetterCloud is the leading SaaSOps platform that enables IT professionals to discover, manage, andsecure the growing stack of SaaS applications in the digital workplace. With an expanding ecosystem
of SaaS integrations, thousands of forward-thinking organizations like Zoom, Walmart, and Square now
rely on BetterCloud to automate processes and policies across their cloud application portfolio.
For more information, please visit www.bettercloud.com.
For a demo of the leading SaaSOps platform, please visit www.bettercloud.com/request-a-demo.

© Copyright 2020 BetterCloud, Inc. All rights reserved.
Various trademarks held by their respective owners.
44