Cloud Computing, as we see it today, has seen tremendous evolutionary as-a-service segments — right from the dawn of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). And now Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS).

Analysts forecasted that the global XaaS market will grow at a CAGR of 38.22% between 2016-2020. Besides the typical SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS offerings discussed, there are other ‘As-a-Service(aaS)’ offerings too. For instance, Database-as-a-service, Storage-as-a-Service, Windows-as-a-Service, and even Malware-as-a-Service.

No doubt the ‘Cloud-driven aaS’ era is clearly upon us. And cloud computing remains the top catalyst for all these services’ growth. The converse holds true too.

In the words of Amarkant Singh, Head of Product, Botmetric, “The persuasive wave of cloud computing is affecting every industry and every vertical we can think of. Thanks to all of its fundamental models – IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS plus the latest XaaS, cloud has brought in democratization of infrastructure for businesses. Talking about XaaS. It is the new hulk of the cloud computing and is ushering in more of ready-made, do-it-yourself components and drag-and-drop development.”

XaaS: Born to Win

The XaaS model was born due to elasticity that the cloud offers. More so, the XaaS provides an ever-increasing range of solutions that ultimately gives businesses the extreme flexibility to choose exactly what they want tailored for their business, irrespective of size/vertical.

Recently, Stratoscale asked 32 IT experts to share their insights on the differences between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS and compiled an exhaustive Op-Ed report IaaS/PaaS/SaaS – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly[1]. Among these experts, Amarkant too has penned few lines for the report.

Here are excerpts from the article:

“More companies across the spectrum have gained trust in cloud infrastructure services, pioneered by AWS. While IaaS provides a high degree of control over the cloud infrastructure, it is very-capital intensive and has geographic limitations. On the other hand, PaaS comes with decreased costs but offers limited scalability. With its roots strongly tied to virtualization, SOA and utility/grid computing, SaaS is gaining more popularity. More so, it is gaining traction due to its scalability, resilience, and cost-effectiveness. According to a recent survey by IDC, 45% of the budget organizations allocate for IT cloud computing is spent on SaaS. As organizations move more of their IT infrastructure and operations to the cloud, they are willing to embrace a serverless/NoOps model. This marks the gradual move towards the XaaS model (Anything as a Service), which cannot be ignored. XaaS is the new hulk of the cloud computing. Born due to elasticity offered by the cloud, XaaS can provide an ever-increasing range of solutions, allowing businesses to choose exactly the solution they want, tailored for their business, irrespective of size/vertical. Additionally, since these services are delivered through either hybrid clouds or one or more of the IaaS/PaaS/SaaS models, XaaS has tremendous potential to lower costs. It can also offer low-risk infrastructure for building a new product or focusing on further innovation. XaaS embracement has already gained traction, so the day is not far when XaaS will be the new norm. But at the end of the day, it all matters on how cloud-ready a company is for XaaS adoption.”

Concluding Thoughts

Each expert has an idiosyncratic perspective to what, where, when, and why XaaS. For few, it stands for everything-as-a-service and refers to the increasing number of services delivered through cloud over the Internet. For few it is anything-as-a-service. Techopedia quotes it as a broad category of services related to cloud computing and remote access where businesses can cut costs and get specific kinds of personal resources. Different perspective, different views, but one goal: Putting cloud in perspective.

Read what other experts are deliberating on XaaS on Stratoscale’s Op-Ed article ‘IaaS/PaaS/SaaS – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.’[1]

Share your thoughts in the comment section below or give us a shout out on either Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. We would love to hear what’s your take on XaaS.

[1] Stratoscale, 2017, “IaaS/PaaS/SaaS – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”