There was once a time when using software meant paying an upfront price for it. If you wanted to use the software on another device or add more users, you usually had to pay upfront for those too. In a bid to make software use a little more flexible and cost-effective, companies began offering Software as a Service (SaaS).
SaaS has since taken the tech world by storm. It allows users to pay for their software on a monthly subscription. There’s no need to buy multiple copies of the same product, as businesses can scale and reduce their use in line with business demands. Today, hardware as a service is becoming increasingly more popular. If this is an option you’re yet to explore for your business, it’s time to learn why it may take off.
All the maintenance takes place elsewhere
One of the primary reasons SaaS became so popular was because of the convenience factor. Business owners are always looking for ways to streamline their operations and make them more convenient. According to some predictions, it was set to grow by 17.8 percent between 2018 and 2019.
Hardware as a Service (HaaS) provides plenty of conveniences too. The biggest is that all the maintenance takes place elsewhere. When your organization wants to expand its hardware requirements, planning and budgeting for the maintenance that follows can give you a headache. When using HaaS, you get all the perks of more hardware, without the associated inconveniences.
Hardware as a service is flexible
Flexible services have become a necessity for lots of businesses. In an ideal world, you would be able to predict sudden areas of demand and growth. However, they’re not always predictable and it isn’t always possible to budget for new hardware costs at short notice.
HaaS allows you to increase and decrease your hardware without making a big upfront investment. When you’re working to a tight budget, that’s always useful. In many ways, it’s similar to leasing hardware and then ending the lease when it no longer meets your needs. You can increase and decrease your hardware usage in line with operational requirements.
Find a reliable provider
When you think about services such as the cloud, a lot of people are already choosing HaaS-type models. According to Hosting Tribunal, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020. Although you could class the cloud as a software service, the hardware required to store the data held in it has to exist somewhere. Essentially, you’re getting the benefits of data storage on a service basis, without owning the hardware yourself.
Some HaaS services operate on a similar basis to cloud storage. They allow you to store your data in a secure offsite location as a form of backup. That data then forms a part of your disaster recovery plan, as you can access it should something happen to your onsite services. If your data storage requirements increase or decrease, you can adjust your usage accordingly.
Although hardware as a service is yet to become as popular as software as a service, there’s no reason why it can’t take off. In addition to costing less than buying hardware as a product, it’s incredibly flexible. If it’s a service you’re interested in, all you need to do is find a provider you can rely on.
