What to Know about the 'As a Service' Model

Modern businesses utilize so many solutions that it can be challenging just to keep them all in line, let alone managing and maintaining them. Naturally, the most difficult part of utilizing so much technology is affording it. While you could invest in software licenses for each and every one of your users’ systems, there is an alternative that you should definitely contemplate.

This alternative is the relatively new “as a service” model, which takes the standard method of acquiring software or other services and flips it on its head. Thanks to the cloud, you can pay an affordable monthly rate for access to an application instead of the large up-front costs of purchasing licenses.

The benefits are significant. Not only are monthly charges easy to budget for, but they are easily changed when they are no longer required. You will have the luxury of more flexibility in terms of how many users and how many accounts you can have set up at any given time, making the “as a service” model quite scalable to suit your organization’s needs. The other vital advantage is flexibility, as you can access these services on any compatible device, not limiting your companies' productivity to simply one desktop or laptop.

The “as a service” model is known to work well not just with software, but other assets that you might be using as well:

• Hardware as a Service (HaaS): Because computing hardware is extraordinarily expensive, having access to affordable, reliable, and easy-to-budget hardware is critical for the growing business. Hardware as a Service offers much-needed technology by allowing for a monthly payment, rather than a huge capital investment.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This type of service is helpful for organizations that don’t want to manage their own cloud or hardware infrastructure. Essentially, components can be managed in the cloud by a third party.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): This service permits businesses to develop, run, and maintain their own platforms for various purposes.

The reality of the “as a service” model is that it can be applied to anything, if you look hard enough. By properly managing your “as a service” offerings, you can turn what used to be capital expenses into operational expenses, permitting you to save even more revenue to invest in other opportunities.

To get started with “as a service” offerings, reach out to Macro Systems at 703-359-9211.