SaaS development requires a rigorous approach towards cloud provider assessment from the platform capabilities as well as the operational enablement perspective. Due to the explicit list of detailed activities during initial evaluation of the cloud provider, acquisition of production subscription and integration of operational frameworks and processes, these respective phases have been added to the traditional software development lifecycle.
As a regular reader of InfoQ we assume that you are familiar with terms such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and the role these categories of as-a-service cloud providers play in the cloud ecosystem. We also assume that you understand Service Providers provide finished services for consumers and/or other businesses while Cloud Platform Providers host finished applications for those Service Providers.