XaaS is short for Everything-as-a-Service and sometimes Anything-as-a-Service. It is a collective term that refers to delivering Anything as a Service. It represents several products, tools, and technologies delivered to users as a service over the network, rather than on-premises within an enterprise. Since XaaS stands for “Everything-as-a-Service,” the list of examples is endless.
According to research firm Research and Markets, the market for XaaS stood at $180.29 Billion and is poised to grow to $680.03 Billion by 2027. The report further goes on to state that there is an increasing demand by various end-use verticals for XaaS and is supported by greater virtualization of IT solutions that will grow, and improved bandwidth and connectivity will also fuel growth opportunities.
In our previous blog, Anything as a Service (XaaS) as Key of the Digital Future, we explained how XaaS becoming the new normal post-pandemic. This article will give you a detailed understanding of essential facts and opportunities surrounding the XaaS business model
XaaS will see more of a SaaS-based approach model – pay per use or the utility-based model will have a greater role to play, with more traction towards the adoption of cloud computing, more businesses will follow this line. Core cloud computing is no longer a business proposition but a business necessity, and with more companies enhancing their digital initiatives is making XaaS even more important.
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Moving from Saas to XaaS
SaaS has brought about a complete transformation in the way business is conducted. With the coming of the cloud, the SaaS model is making headlines, with many companies adopting it either as a solution or using it. Several products and services are hopping on the SaaS model. This is giving way to XaaS, and companies have begun to realize that anything as a service can be offered; hence companies are looking to adopt XaaS as part of their offerings.
Servitization
Servitization is when companies look to bundle their service offerings into a single package. XaaS is layered with the idea of how it can tackle any IT function or any business function, make it a product, and add several services to it. The hybrid approach of products and service offerings allows organizations to offer better than just siloes offerings.
XaaS includes many things. Highlighted below are a few use cases:
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – Salesforce, Zoho,
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) – Openshift, Google App Engine, Heroku
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – Digital Ocean, Azure, Google Compute Engine, AWS
- Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) – Acronis, AWS, Infrascale
- Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) – Amazon, Rackspace, Cisco (Read more here)
- Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) – Dynamo DB, IBM DB2, Mongo DB Atlas
- Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS) –AWS, Azure
- Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) –Desktone, Citrix
- Monitoring-as-a-Service (MaaS)- Azure Monitor, Amazon cloud watch
- Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS)
- Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) – Amazon, Citrix
- FaaS (Functions as a Service) –Google cloud functions, MS Azure functions, AWS Lamda
- CaaS (Container as a Service) – Amazon elastic container, Azure container instances
- Healthcare-as-a-Service (HaaS) bluerange.io,plainid.com
- Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS)- Cloudflare, Forcepoint, Checkpoint
XaaS model advantages
– Reduction in Cost: XaaS offers a service model which cuts down costs and eases IT deployments.
– Reduces CapEx costs: Leveraging the services provided by the XaaS model reduces the physical overheads in equipment space, power, and reduces the CapEx costs.
– Pay-as-you-go: XaaS provides a Pay-as-you-go model which encompasses both subscription-based and consumption-based models that charge based on resource usage, in contrast to the traditional cost model that requires up-front capital expenditures for hardware and software.
– Reduces Time to Market: With XaaS, development teams need not wait for setting up new hardware and software to deploy the applications. They can leverage the services provided by the Cloud Service Provider out of the box and start developing immediately.
– Provides better backup and disaster recovery: XaaS helps quickly recover the organization’s critical systems after a disaster and provides remote access to the systems in a secure virtual environment.
– Helps businesses to adapt quickly: XaaS model allows businesses to quickly adapt to changing market conditions with new solutions. A company can quickly access new technologies and scale its infrastructure automatically when needed.
– Adds value to the business: XaaS model reduces the physical overhead such as equipment, power, and cooling resulting in the reduction of maintenance load on IT staff, which allows them to focus on more important, value-added projects for the projects.
XaaS model potential disadvantages
– Possible downtime: When the Internet breaks, the XaaS provider might have problems, and users won’t use the services.
– Performance issues: As the XaaS model becomes popular, if too many customers use the same resources, bandwidth, data storage, and retrieval times can suffer, resulting in the system slowing down.
– Visibility issues: Sometimes, organizations would want more visibility into their service provider’s environment and infrastructure to better gauge service health and assume a more proactive role which is a challenge.
– Integration issues: It may be challenging to integrate the XaaS model with certain existing enterprises as it requires the entire company staff to adjust to new technology.
Future of XaaS
XaaS will stay and will drive business and play a key role in the future of cloud computing. Industry leaders like STL is well placed to advise on XaaS and can support the digital transformation to XaaS. Coming days will see more of AI/IoT, making it more over the cloud will provide tremendous potential for businesses to use the XaaS model to suit their needs. This can be in the form of delivery models, security, and operational models. The success will depend on technology leaders and teams who understand XaaS well. Know more about our XaaS offerings with this on-demand webinar on “Building an ecosystem to capitalize on the ‘XaaS’ economy harnessing 5G and Cloud”
End Note
In times of pandemic, remote working became the new normal, posing IT infrastructure challenges to businesses. This has accelerated the adoption of the XaaS model, which aims at increasing the value for the customer, reducing the high Capital Expenditure (CapEx) by shifting the expenditure to a more predictable operational expense (OpEx).
