Software as a Service (SaaS)
Wood offers a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution hosted on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. This deployment model provides secure remote access to NEXUS applications through a web browser and supports Single Sign-On (SSO) for seamless authentication. Users access the system directly through a single link using their company account. For details, see SaaS Login.
Note
Access to NEXUS applications via RemoteApp is no longer supported.
For high-level architectural information about SaaS, see SaaS Architecture.
Depending on the service agreement, user management tasks may be handled by your organisation’s administrative personnel or by Wood. For details, see User Management.
Prerequisites
Before using the SaaS solution for NEXUS, ensure all requirements described in Software as a Service (SaaS) Deployment are met.
Features
When using the SaaS deployment model, consider the following features and operational characteristics:
Location |
Wood currently operates cloud hubs in the UK, USA, Malaysia and Australia. We can deploy services in any Microsoft Azure data centre as required for clients with specific geographic restrictions on data storage. Note though that this may incur additional costs. |
Sign-on |
NEXUS supports Single Sign-on (SSO) via OAuth through Azure AD (Entra ID). Note that for security reasons, authentication is restricted to a single customer domain. |
Availability |
System availability is historically greater than 99.9%. |
Downtime |
Access to NEXUS may be temporarily unavailable during scheduled or emergency maintenance. Daily automated server maintenance typically occurs out of hours (for example, 0200–0400) and does not always result in downtime. This maintenance window allows critical security issues to be addressed promptly after the release of a relevant patch. Any non-routine maintenance during business hours is scheduled and approved with the client. |
Response times and latency |
Task execution times vary (from milliseconds to minutes) depending on complexity. Higher network latency can impact performance. Wood recommends less than 120 ms latency for acceptable performance with NEXUS IC and less than 300 ms for IC‑Web. |
Backup regime |
Database backups are performed each business day and retained for 14 calendar days. Additional or long-term backups can be arranged or transmitted to the customer if required; costs may apply. |
Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) |
No client-side DR/BC requirements exist. The hosted service is resilient to hardware failures through redundant Azure infrastructure and maintains availability even if a data centre goes offline. All database backups use geo-redundant storage. The DR/BC plan includes automated deployment of new cloud infrastructure and restoration of the latest backup.
|
Privacy and Confidentiality |
All data is stored securely in Microsoft SQL Server. Access is restricted to authenticated users only. |
Security |
Access to data within NEXUS is controlled by in-built functional security.
|
Scalability |
The SaaS service can be scaled both horizontally and vertically for expansion of scope and increased number of users. |
Administration Services provided under SaaS
Because Wood manages the cloud instances of NEXUS IC more closely than on‑premise deployments, SaaS customers benefit from additional administration services:
Import and export jobs are offloaded to a separate server, allowing users to exit NEXUS while jobs continue to execute
REST API requests which generate and download reports are only available for SaaS clients
Database maintenance
Infrastructure optimisation
Database configuration management across regions
Wood users supporting your database will not consume a NEXUS license
Software update service, including early access to Beta releases
Subscriber database creation and database synchronisation management services
See also