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Rick's Cloud: XaaS is not a passing trend

Below is a post by Rick Blaisdell originally published on his blog. This post does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of GreenPages Technology Solutions.

The “Everything as a Service” (XaaS) phenomenon is not a passing trend. For the enterprise, the cloud has moved beyond the stage of representing only a choice for off-site computing. For the consumer, the cloud has also moved beyond the stage of representing only an option for data back-up. The cloud is rapidly moving into its next phase of supporting virtually any form of communications, application, content and commerce.

As the name suggests Everything-as-a-Service or Anything-as-a-Service, almost all business models starting with security, database management, CRM, graphic modeling software and many others, are on their ways to emerge as “as-a-Service” models to provide users the services in the most cost-effective manner and in the easiest accessible way.

We are already familiar with the PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS cloud computing models. And, in the era of big data and cloud integration, there is now AaaS, i.e., Analytics-as-a-Service, which is a service platform designed for the complete management of structured and unstructured data in real time.

Thus, everything indicates that with XaaS, cloud computing will exert more influence on the business side of IT than any other technology available today. A rapidly growing audience, increases in network & connectivity, advanced cloud encryptions will lead to rapidly maturing cloud service models.

At the same time, as enterprises expand their use of cloud services, cloud brokers will be essential to helping providers deliver those services to their customers. A cloud broker is an intermediary organization that simplifies the relationship between a cloud provider and its customers, in much the same way that a car dealer functions between a car manufacturer and a car buyer.

Benefits of XaaS

There are many benefits offered by XaaS, and here are the three most important ones:

  • Faster response to market developments – With constant availability to resources, data and other services through XaaS, businesses can respond in a faster way to any change in the business environment and enjoy better profit figures.
  • Large flexibility – Being flexible is one of the greatest contributing factors for a company’s scalability. Since most of the processes and operations are handled by XaaS, users can look forward to reduced costs, while enjoying an increase in their scalability metrics.
  • High level of innovation – With XaaS in place, users have reliable access to technology at all times. This facilitates users to innovate and develop their companies.

Examples of Xaas

Since Xaas has been on a steady rise in the IT world, there are several examples have greatly benefited its users, and one of them is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). DRaaS recovers data, infrastructure and all the applications that were a part of the system before the disaster. Since this cloud based service has the ability of recovering all types of lost data, it helps in maintaining continuity in business operations, without presenting any obstacles.

Some other examples include Metal as a Service (MaaS), Storage as a Service (SaaS), etc. In short, if there is anything that you want through “as a service”, you will get it through XaaS.

XaaS is not a question of “if” but rather of “when”. Businesses should understand and use this technology just to keep up with the competition. In fact, the cloud has simplified acquisition of IT systems by forcing enterprises to focus on the basics of feature, cost and utility.

View more posts from Rick.