7 Most Important IT Trends in 2011 – Trend #6 – Everything as a Service (EaaS)

Let’s face it…Management doesn’t want the business to be an expert at everything.  They just want to be experts at how the business makes money and have others handle the rest.

This is the mantra these days.  The days of doing everything in-house with your own staff is just not real anymore.  Droves of businesses are moving to the various forms of “as a service” offerings that are now available and ready for the enterprise.

As an IT professional, you need to accept the fact that these offerings are real and you have to assess them as alternatives when making decisions about how to improve the IT environment.  Below I’ve broken down some of the “services” that are now available so you know what it all means and how you can leverage this emerging arena…

SaaS – Software as a Service

Software-as-a-Service is a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand.  This model is becoming more and more popular with all types of applications. The trick for IT professionals is how to manage SaaS sprawl.

Here are a few services that are very popular that you may consider:

Microsoft Exchange as a Service

Google Apps for Business (I’m a HUGE fan!)

Salesforce.com for CRM (these guys started it all – great application)

NetSuite for ERP (and a lot more)

 

IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure-as-a-Service is the delivery of computer infrastructure (typically a platform virtualization environment) as a service. Rather than purchasing servers, software, data center space or network equipment, clients instead buy those resources as a fully outsourced service.

Here are a few of the big players that you may consider:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) – (these guys are the 800 lb gorilla in the space and are doing amazing stuff – we are also a partner of theirs)

RackSpace (Like Amazon but they have less infrastructure but wrap their offering with service)

Microsoft Azure

GoGrid (servers, load balancing, and more)

Aryaka (Application Acceleration & WAN Optimization service – we are a partner)

 

PaaS -Platform as a Service

Platform-as a-Service is the delivery of a computing platform and solution stack as a service. It facilitates the deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. PaaS provides the facilities required to support the complete lifecycle of building and delivering web applications and services.

Here are a few of the big players that you may consider:

Google App Engine

Force.com (a part of Salesforce)

 

DaaS – Desktops as a Service

Desktop-as-a-Service enables users to use their desktops virtually from anywhere. Commonly known as “Desktop Virtualization”, this concept separates personal computer desktop environments from the physical machine through a client-server computing model.

The only player I know of:

Desktone (only real player in this space to my knowledge)

 

There are lots more “as a service” offerings out there.  Let me know in the comments section below if you recommend other solutions.

 

Love it? Hate it?  I want your feedback!  Leave me a comment below…

 

Coming up next – Trend #5 (hint: it’s not real). Stay tuned…

Related posts:

1. 7 Most Important IT Trends in 2011 – Trend #5 – Virtualization of Everything
2. 7 Most Important IT Trends in 2011 – Ignore These And You’ll Get Left Behind!