Defining XaaS (as a Service) & Why Should Business Consider this Model.

#XaaS #tripledigitcom #otgconsulting

What inspired me to write this article was when I was at Mass one Sunday and the Priest actually began explaining “as a Service” in his Homily and ended with, “The Original as a Service is GaaS (God as a Service)… You don’t need any additional resources and you can access him anytime you need!”

Many business decision makers have heard of the acronym SaaS and some even know and understand what it means and why their company should use SaaS.

Let’s start with a simple definition of aaS or XaaS from Wikipedia: “as a Service” is something being made available over the Internet to a customer as a service.

aaS, or XaaS, is an acronym for “as a service” (e.g., anything as a service), and it refers to a business model in which something is being presented to a customer, either internally or externally, as a service.?As a Service offerings provide endpoints for business customers and/or consumers to interface with which are usually API driven, but can commonly be controlled via a web console in a user’s web browser.

There are many XaaS offerings for Businesses and/or Consumers – In my research… I have discovered (49) XaaS models. ?If anyone is still reading at the end of this article, I will list the (49) along with projected growth over the next few years. ?Many of these solutions will not be relevant and I promise, the list will grow.

The (3) Main XaaS options are:

·????????SaaS (Software as a Service)

·????????IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and

·????????PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Originally (pre-Cloud Computing) these models were done via early mainframes. Users accessed a central computer through “dumb terminals” (keyboards and monitors only). Similarly, the first World Wide Web consisted of university mainframes sharing data through dial-up message boards.

The ownership of software began with the emergence of personal computers at home and work. ?Needed software was purchased as a license and was considered an asset. Purchasing these software licenses added additional necessary costs: Customers would also need networks, servers, disk space, IT staff etc. which, became expensive add-on costs.

Because of expensive and intrusive ongoing maintenance support, virtual machines and desktops centralized the storage, memory, and computing resources through “thin clients,” e.g. dumb terminals’ interfacing with mainframes. ?With this, a business was not required to own the software to access it — that’s where “as-a-service” originated.

Below are some great simple explanations and analogies of the main XaaS mode (This section is provided by: Warren Bean,, CRM Sr. Sales Engineer at Zasio Enterprises)

SaaS

Here is where things get more interesting. SaaS, or Software-as-a-Service, is like Uber—something you don’t own but simply use for a time. The Uber driver maintains the car, puts gas in the tank, and makes upgrades as needed. You call the service when you need it.

With SaaS, a software vendor maintains the software and provides access to it through the internet via a web browser—no installation required. SaaS provides the benefits of low up-front costs, no maintenance, and no commitment. The long-term cost benefit depends on many factors each person should consider. Those factors could include number of users, custom requirements, data privacy, etc.

IaaS

Let’s stick with the vehicle analogy. Perhaps you want to drive yourself, but you still don’t want the hassle of maintenance, nor the overhead costs of ownership. What would you do? You could lease or rent a car. This is the idea behind IaaS, or Infrastructure as a Service. You gain access to virtual servers in the cloud and use those servers for whatever you need. The same way a car rental company for a vehicle you lease maintains the vehicle you’re renting, the cloud hosting company is responsible for all servers, maintenance, and networking. This option also allows you to expand the capacity of servers as needs grow—like renting a truck so you can move to a new house.

PaaS

What if you don’t want to drive or be driven by someone else, but you do want the benefits a vehicle provides? For example, say you need to move your stuff to a storage unit but you don’t want to buy or rent a truck. You would pay someone to move it for you. This would be Platform-as-a-Service, or PaaS. The most common example of this is a cloud-hosted database. You don’t want to maintain a database server—you just need the data stored and delivered on demand.

Although these concepts have been around for a long time, they’re now growing in sophistication and popularity with the advancement of cloud-based options and security. It’s important to know the difference between the methods people use to access and deploy software so you can make informed decisions about what works best for you and your business. Welcome to the “gig economy!”

If you would like to learn more about how and why your business can benefit from the XaaS model(s), Contact Jeffrey Barnes at Triple Digit Communications www.tripledigitcom.com (In partnership with OTG Consulting www.otgconsulting.net.)

Now as promised… below is a list of (49) XaaS models AND their expected growth over the next few years.

1.?????AIaaS - Artificial Intelligence as a Service. expected to grow?from $2.3 million in 2017 to $77 million by 2025.

2.?????BaaS - Backend as a Service - Expected to grow by $7 billion?by 2024.

3.?????Backup as a Service

4.?????Blockchain as a Service

5.?????Building as a Service

6.?????CaaS - Cloud as a Service - projected to reach $927.5 billion?by 2027.

7.?????CaaS - Containers as a Service - projected to reach $13.7 billion?by 2026.

8.?????CaaS - Country as a Service

9.?????Commerce as a Service

10.?Communications as a Service

11.?Compiler as a Service

12.?Compliance as a Service

13.?Content as a Service

14.?DaaS - Data as a Service - Expected to grow?from $11.3 billion in 2019 to $42.7 billion by 2024.

15.?DaaS - Desktop as a Service (See Workspace as a Service)

16.?DaaS - Device as a Service (aka Hardware as a Service, Notebook as a Service) projected to expand at a 54.7% compound annual growth rate?and reach $66.1 million by 2023.

17.?Database as a Service

18.?DRaaS - Disaster Recovery as a Service - expected to grow?from $1.72 billion in 2016 to $12.54 billion by 2022.

19.?EaaS - (Test) Environment as a Service - compound annual growth of 20%?from 2020 to 2025.

20.?FaaS - Framework as a Service

21.?HaaS - Hardware as a Service (See Device as a Service, Notebook as a Service)

22.?IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service - Expected to skyrocket?from $38.9 billion in 2019 to $201.8 billion by 2027. Behemoths AWS, Google, IBM, and Microsoft dominate.

23.?Identity as a Service

24.?IoTaaS - IoT as a Service Unknown growth, but?Microsoft has gotten in on the action?in recent years.

25.?KaaS - Knowledge as a Service

26.?LaaS - Location as a Service - expected to grow to $99 billion?by 2023.

27.?Linux as a Service

28.?Logging as a Service

29.?MaaS - Monitoring as a Service - Expected to grow?from $1.9 billion in 2017 to $4.8 billion by 2025.

30.?Management as a Service

31.?Messaging as a Service

32.?(Bare) Metal as a Service

33.?Mobile Backend as a Service

34.?NaaS - Network as a Service - Projected to grow?from $4.3 billion in 2018 to $21.7 billion by 2023.

35.?Notebook as a Service

36.?OaaS - Operations as a Service

37.?PaaS - Platform as a Service - Projected to grow to $52.4 billion?at a compound annual growth rate of 15.4% through 2022.

38.?RaaS - Ransomware as a Service

39.?SaaS - Software as a Service - projected to grow?from $158.2 billion in 2020 to a whopping $307.3 billion by 2026.

40.?SaaS - (IT) Security as a Service - Expected to grow?from $11.1 billion in 2020 to $26.4 billion by 2025.

41.?Storage as a Service

42.?Surface as a Service

43.?UaaS - Unified Communications as a Service - Expected to expand?from $15.8 billion in 2019 to $24.8 billion by 2024.

44.?Understanding as a Service

45.?VaaS - Video as a Service - expected to expand?from $390.3 million in 2016 to USD $1.8 billion by 2021.

46.?VaaS - Virtualization as a Service -?projected to grow?by a compound annual growth rate of 18.5% through 2022.

47.?WaaS - Workspace as a Service - Market was valued at $4.9 billion in 2019 and is?expected to reach $8.5 billion?by 2025.

48.?Wi-Fi as a Service

49.?Windows as a Service

Resources used as a reference for this article:

·????????AlliedMarketResearch.com

·????????Auvik.com

·????????BusinessWire.com

·????????ImarcGroup.com

·????????MarketsandMarkets.com

·????????ResearchandMarkets.com

·????????SkyOneSolutions.com

·????????VerifiedMarketResearch.com

·????????Warren Bean CRM., Sales Engineer Zasio Enterprises

·????????Wikipedia

·????????ZDNet.com