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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.

- Amarkant Singh, Head of Product, Botmetric.

What is XaaS?

“Anything-as-a-service” also referred to as “Everything-as-a-Service” (XaaS) describes a general category of services related to cloud computing and remote access. It recognizes the vast number of products, tools, and technologies that are now delivered to users as a service over the internet. Essentially, any IT function can be transformed into a service for enterprise consumption. The service is paid for in a flexible consumption model rather than as an upfront purchase or license.

It is an extremely wide-ranging term that refers to any tools, applications, services, games, etc., which are delivered to your laptop or other device via the cloud, rather than obtained on-premises or in a physical format.

The XaaS model was born as a result of the 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.

A XaaS platform eliminates the need to worry about building out extensive on-premise storage, web services, hardware, or custom software. It depends on what service the specific XaaS company is offering. Instead of building everything in-house, companies can purchase a XaaS product license for an extended period and take advantage of its extensive infrastructure.

Examples of XaaS

A few examples of XaaS include:

1. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)

2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

3. Function-as-a-Service (FaaS)

4. Software as a Service (SaaS)
   SaaS stands for “Software as a Service,” and it is the most common type of XaaS business. In this version, a provider hosts applications and software in the cloud and then offers them to consumers on a subscription basis. Cloud users do not manage the cloud infrastructure and platform where the application runs. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud user’s own computers, which simplifies maintenance and support. You probably use or have used Gmail, Google Docs, Salesforce, Showpad,… before. It is actually Software running in the cloud. These SaaS-product all run in the cloud so you can open them anywhere you are and you never need to install them.

5. Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS)
   This complex service includes backup, recovery system tools, and full replication of all of the data, apps, and business processes. Actually, DRaaS clones the main infrastructure, and continuously updates it. In the case of a failure or disaster, the company’s work will continue in this additional infrastructure until the main system is restored. DRaaS is one of the main components of a business continuity strategy — BCM, Business Continuity Management. Creating a redundant, fault-tolerant clone of the main infrastructure is a huge cost, unbearable for most companies. At the same time, cloud-based DRaaS is much more convenient, accessible, and provides additional protection delivered by the cloud provider.

6. Communication-as-a-Service (CaaS) This is a comprehensive SaaS-solution for providing communication services in the company, including Internet telephony, video calls, chats, and instant messengers, interfaces for working with documents, and other communication tools. Using this cloud software solution allows you to significantly save on infrastructure and software, while you can scale capacity, as is usually the case in cloud solutions.

7. Network-as-a-Service (NaaS)
   NaaS is a cloud model that enables users to easily operate the network and achieve the outcomes they expect from it without owning, building, or maintaining their own infrastructure. NaaS can replace hardware-centric VPNs, load balancers, firewall appliances, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) connections. Users can scale up and down as demand changes, rapidly deploy services, and eliminate hardware costs.

8. Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS)
   DBaaS solutions enable businesses to organize, filter, and store customer data in software easily accessed and retrieved by the right employee. Companies using DBaaS software won’t have to build their database from scratch. Instead, they can customize and create a personalized database in the cloud using a trusted DBaaS solution. An example of a DBaaS product is Oracle Database.

9. Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)
   This is a service that allows you to organize terminal access to a remote server using thin clients and the RDP protocol. When corporations realized that maintaining a fleet of personal computers, especially in companies with a multidivisional structure, was very expensive in all respects (maintenance, support, spare parts and components, IT staff), they began to look for optimization. But cloud technology solves this issue. Organizing a remote connection of tens and even hundreds of workstations to a terminal server using Desktop-as-a-Service is easy, flexible, economical, and very convenient.

10. Healthcare-as-a-Service (HaaS)
    With electronic medical records (EMR) and hospital information systems (HIS), the healthcare industry is transforming into Healthcare-as-a-Service. Medical treatment is becoming more data-driven and patient-centric. Thanks to the IoT, wearables and other emerging technologies, the following services are available:

    • Online consultations with doctors
    • Health monitoring 24/7
    • Medicine delivery at your doorstep
    • Lab samples collection even at home and delivery of results as soon as they are ready
    • Access to your medical records 24/7 HaaS creates opportunities for almost all categories of citizens to get qualified medical help.

11. Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS)
    Important trends of modern society are mobility and freedom of transportation at different distances. There are numerous apps popping up connected with transport, so a part of this industry is transforming into an -aaS model. The most vivid examples are:

    • Carsharing (you can rent a car at any place via a special app and drive anywhere you need, paying for the time you use a car, or for the distance you cover)
    • Uber taxi services (you order a taxi via an app, which calculates the cost of the rout in advance).

12. Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS)
    Storage as a Service (STaaS) is the practice of using public cloud storage resources to store your data. Using STaaS is more cost efficient than building private storage infrastructure, especially when you can match data types to cloud storage offerings.

13. Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS)
    Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a cloud service model in which developers outsource all the behind-the-scenes aspects of a web or mobile application so that they only have to write and maintain the frontend. BaaS vendors provide pre-written software for activities that take place on servers, such as user authentication, database management, remote updating, and push notifications (for mobile apps), as well as cloud storage and hosting. Firebase is a cost-effective BaaS platform.

14. Malware-as-a-Service (MaaS)
    Well, speaking about XaaS, we usually mean products oriented solely to achieve legitimate goals by law-abiding citizens. But life gives a chance to everyone, without exception. And if there is a demand for cyber attacks, industrial espionage, confidential information leaks, there will be those who create tools for such actions. Why can’t software be developed to create viruses, worms, and trojans? And maybe it’s underway. And such “factories of malicious software” work on cloud servers, and interact with clients according to the SaaS model. Malware-as-a-Service products allow attackers to attack their victims, including through botnets that MaaS customers gain access to as part of the service.

Benefits of XaaS

The market of services provided via cloud computing and the Internet is expanding at a rapid pace due to a range of advantages they provide both for organizations and end-users. The biggest benefits are:

• Scalability 
  Outsourcing provides access to unlimited computing capacities, storage space, RAM, etc; a company can quickly and seamlessly scale its processes up and down depending on requirements and doesn’t have to worry about additional deployments or downtimes.
• Cost and time effectiveness
  A company doesn’t purchase its personal equipment and doesn’t need to deploy it, saving much time and money; a pay-as-you-go model is also beneficial.
• Focus on core competencies
   There’s no need to set up apps and programs or conduct training for employees; consequently, they can concentrate on their direct duties and achieve better performance.
• Growth
  By reducing capital expenditure and enabling simple scalability, XaaS enables owners and managers to grow their business. With XaaS, owners will find it easier to identify and access the right technology and allow their salesforce to chase new business that may have been beyond their potential capacity.
• Better Security
  It contains improved security controls and configured to exact requirements of business.
• The high quality of services 
  Since professionals support and maintain your infrastructure and systems, they provide the latest updates and all the emerging technologies, guaranteeing the quality of services.
• Better customer experience 
  The above-mentioned pros lead to customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty.

Disadvantages of XaaS

So far, it all sounds perfect, but as with any process or system, there are some potential disadvantages to XaaS.

• Downtime
  We have all experienced some level of internet downtime and, even with XaaS, this is a potential issue that may arise. If your XaaS provider’s servers go down then that will also affect you. Some XaaS providers may guarantee services through a service level agreement (SLA).
• Performance
  XaaS is becoming increasingly more popular and, as that happens, there can be issues with latency, functionality, bandwidth, etc. If you are running apps within a virtual environment, especially a public cloud environment, then they may also be affected.
• Integration
  As digital transformation speeds up and we move to increased levels of automation, there may also be some issues with integration –  especially if your business is working across more than one cloud service.
• Troubleshooting
  While shifting many of your business components to XaaS relieves your own staff of many of their regular tasks, if issues do arise then it may be harder for your IT staff to troubleshoot the problem. Provisioning for those staff to stay up to date in the technology may lessen any impact.