Is Your Business Ready to Become a XaaS?

Today, to remain competitive, companies have to reshape their business models by identifying new values they bring to customers.

Technology firms have already embraced the changes that cloud computing presented recently. A lot of them migrated to the cloud using the most popular IT models like SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. However, a new trend appeared recently. 

Everything as a Service (XaaS) is a new IT model for enterprise companies. The main advantage of this approach is that business pays only for the technology it uses whereas the traditional models required companies to pay for licenses or up-front costs. Due to its nature, the model is often called flexible consumption. Using technologies on a pay-for-usage basis allows companies to become more agile and embrace digital innovation faster.    

With adopting XaaS, firms have no need to buy complex technology solutions and acquire specific expertise. Let’s see how the XaaS evolution impacted enterprise IT. Here are the other reasons for moving to XaaS:

• Increased productivity
• Lower operational costs
• Ease of implementation
• End-to-end support
• Streamlined innovation
• Access to innovative technologies
• Improved time-to-market

By improving their IT infrastructure, companies enhance their processes as well. With better and flexible IT solutions, they are able to grow as soon as they need it. 

Types of Cloud Computing Services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS 

Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure is comprised of server and network software and hardware, a data center or server room, and specialists to configure and maintain it. It’s time and effort-consuming to create your own proper infrastructure. Thus, many companies started to use IaaS solutions to reduce costs. Simply put, they rent a place in a data center or even rent computing power. The main difference between IaaS and traditional hosting is the ability to quickly scale and charge only for consumed resources.

Platform as a Service

PaaS is used for software engineering, for example, for a banking app development. These solutions are placed on the application hosting with support for all the necessary services. Among the most frequently used cloud development environment, we can name Hosting Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, or AWS applications. The main advantage of PaaS is the ability to quickly launch apps. In addition, using cloud services, developers can collect statistics on the work of their software, analyze and make the best business decisions.

Software as a Service

Earlier, companies had to buy and install software products to manage their operational processes. Such systems as CRM or ERP were installed for every employee who was responsible for managing these processes. Today, there’s no need to purchase complex and expensive programs. Now, people can open these apps directly in a browser. Unlike the on-premise applications, you don’t need to install SaaS solutions on your computer; you can access them from different devices.

Flexible consumption models also include data and analytics-related services, AI-as-a-services, IoT-as-a-service, hardware paid based on consumption, etc. The usage of innovative XaaS solutions facilitates digital transformation. In the next section, let’s see what changes you will meet if you are going to use XaaS. 

Shifting from a Traditional Business Model to XaaS: Be Ready for Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is an inevitable way if you want to move with the times. This complex process starts with creating a strategy, developing a new business model, and defining your capabilities. Next, you should choose the right operating model, select the right people, processes, and technology. The usage of XaaS is only a small element in this chain. Before shifting from a traditional business model to a new one, you should answer the following questions:

• What are your pursuits?
• Where do you want to operate and how do you plan to compete?
• What capabilities will you need to gain a competitive edge?
• How will you use these capabilities?
• What skills, processes, and technology will you need to reach your goals?

Tips for Implementing Everything-as-a-Service Solutions

Here are some recommendations on how to successfully execute digital transformation:

1. Make your teams or departments cross-functional to eliminate organizational isolation. 
2. Prepare a strong foundation for transformation by simplifying and standardizing processes inside an organization.
3. Define roles and responsibilities. Determine who is responsible for decision-making.
4. Improve communication inside a company. 
5. Define the capabilities and skills you need to digitally transform your company. 
6. Take into account the opinions of all the stakeholders: your customers, suppliers, and partners.

Becoming a XaaS enterprise is an effective way towards digital transformation. It requires setting the right objectives, acquiring the right skills, and implementing the right technology. However, it is worth your efforts since it can cut operational costs, improve productivity, and bring high scalability and performance for your company to grow.

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