You may have noticed a shift in the way software is delivered these days. In the past, you would purchase a disc at a store, install the program from that disc, and then end up purchasing the updated version the next year.
Software companies have figured out that instead of making customers pay for the upgraded program every year, they could just offer a subscription. You pay a monthly or annual fee, and the upgrades are technically free. This ensures you always have the latest version and takes the guesswork out of your software purchases.
One of the best characteristics of these services is the low barriers to entry, where there are not a ton of upfront costs associated with the product or technology. This makes it ideal for small businesses and consumers.
Although the upfront cost is minimal, it usually offers great scalability too. You can start out with a smaller subscription and as you grow you can upgrade to a higher-level plan or product. It also allows you to use the service from wherever you are, at home or in the office.
To help you navigate this new world of everything as a service, we’ve compiled a list of the most common services,
SaaS
Software-as-a-Service was pretty much the first player in this ball game and is still the most popular. Products like Microsoft Office, Adobe’s Creative Suite, and countless others have shifted their business model to SaaS. And it definitely makes sense.
When you buy the software, you aren’t purchasing the software itself, you’re purchasing a license to use it. This reality lends itself more to a subscription service, where you are just paying for the ability to use the software.
HaaS
Technology is constantly evolving. You purchase the latest and greatest computers for your company, and two months later the hardware is out of date. Imagine the large-scale frustration business owners feel when they purchase devices for all of their employees.
Hardware manufacturers like Dell and HP are starting to offer Hardware as a Service option. As a business owner, you can purchase a subscription, and never have to worry about the management and maintenance of the hardware within your company.
DaaS
Much like its hardware counterpart, Desktop as a Service aims to help business owners with the cost of expensive devices. In this scenario, you are not purchasing a subscription to the actual hardware, your subscription is the ability to access a fully functional desktop that is in the cloud.
Since all the processing power, space, and memory come from the cloud device, the machine used to access it can have minimal specifications. Thin clients (hardware devices that only have very limited functionality) can be deployed to the employees, and they can still be extremely productive from the cloud desktop.
IaaS
Small business owners are opting to utilize cloud services for critical business functions like email and file storage. This shift has made having a local server unnecessary in many instances.
Infrastructure as a Service allows businesses to move the functions that would normally take place on a local server, into the cloud as well. Companies love the ability to work as if they are right at their office, from anywhere in the world, without dealing with VPN connections to the office network.
While there are more “as a service” models, these are the ones currently gaining traction in today’s business world. As their success continues, we are sure that more businesses will figure out how to make the model work for them as well.
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