Love it or Hate it, ‘as-a-Service’ is Going to be Everywhere

Graham Fry, Managing Director, avsnet

‘as-a-Service’ – I genuinely haven’t seen such a transformative change in our industry since the emergence of video communications.

Think about your own favourite applications for a second – how many of these tools wouldn’t be possible without as-a-Service and the cloud? How many others are being re-architected by vendors so they’re a more commercially attractive service billed over time?

We’re at the front end of this change. Businesses are clamouring for our as-a-Service solutions. Why? Because they give employees and organisations the business outcomes they want – powerful collaboration, higher productivity, little IT administrative burden and OPEX rather than CAPEX.

I often like to draw parallels with personal vehicles or ‘Cars as-a-Service’ as they might one day be called.

Our grandchildren will likely look back in wonder. “You used to pay for your vehicles, drive them and be responsible for maintenance?” they’ll scoff…  They’ll be amazed at how we stomached a product that diminished in value from the moment it was bought.

Sound familiar? That’s what collaboration technology used to be like, that is until the network caught up and as-a-Service became a viable option.

Martin Finlayson, our head of visual communications, is penning an excellent blog series on this very topic. He’s looking at cloud collaboration objectively and being frankly honest about the state of the industry. Here are his first and second entries.

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So, if ‘as-a-Service’ is as easy as everyone says it is, what’s left to do?

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Security remains incredibly important, from educating people about setting strong passwords to implementing a managed security service that monitors the network for complex threats and vulnerabilities.

Your company data is now one of your most significant competitive differentiators. Data is what employees use to collaborate and what they recall via content sharing. It’s what they refer to in meeting rooms, huddle spaces and virtual meeting rooms.

The second vital element is the network. From bandwidth-intensive video conferencing to a 30-strong virtual meeting room sharing a 100MB presentation amongst participants, the network must be able to cope with the modern workplace.

Look hard enough at any successful as-a-Service deployment and you’ll find a rock-solid network underneath. This means flexibility, capacity and a reliable service. We believe we tick those boxes at avsnet and you can find out more in our blog explaining how we provide connectivity to customers.

From your perspective, the next step is to identify which collaboration solutions would benefit from as-a-Service first. Prioritisation is key and that’s what forms a competent collaboration strategy. If you are unsure where to start, contact us and we’d be happy to help.