HR adopts a cloud payroll application that staff use in a browser with no servers for HR to manage. Which cloud service type is that?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Browser payroll with zero servers on HR’s chore list is textbook SaaS — the finished app arrives as a service. If HR were patching VMs, that would be IaaS instead. Colocation cages are still your hardware problem.
Full Explanation
Software as a Service delivers a complete application as a service. HR payroll used in a browser with no servers for HR to manage is a classic SaaS scenario: the provider runs the application stack while staff consume the finished product through a client. The absence of municipal servers on HR’s chore list is the fingerprint of SaaS here. IaaS virtual machines that HR must patch weekly would leave infrastructure and OS duties with the customer—the opposite pattern from browser payroll with no servers to run. Saying every browser app is PaaS with a customer-managed runtime confuses service types; SaaS is the finished app, PaaS is the app platform developers deploy onto. A colocation cage lease with customer-owned payroll appliances is still customer hardware operations and facility coordination, not SaaS. Exam caveat: SaaS reduces infrastructure burden but customers still configure access, roles, data sharing, and often compliance or retention settings inside the application. Operational check: confirm HR owns account provisioning and data-handling settings in the payroll SaaS tenant, not guest OS patching, and document who approves access reviews. Train HR admins on tenant settings and access reviews so SaaS success is measured by correct configuration, not by the absence of any customer duty.