Understanding the Benefits of Technology as a Service
When it comes to technology, one thing has remained constant over the years: Computer technology becomes obsolete very quickly. Last year’s top-of-the-line equipment quickly depreciates only to be replaced by something better and faster—and often cheaper—this year.
The problem with hosting your technology on premises
Companies that manage their computers and servers on premises know it is tedious to remain ahead of technology. Aside from the upfront capital cost of purchasing the hardware in the first place, along with the costs of installation and configuration, there are the ongoing costs in time and materials for replacing aging components with new ones, updating operating systems, staying ahead of hackers by continually updating network security, making backups of critical data, and ensuring there is continuity of service in case of power outages or other acts of God.
In short, maintaining your hardware and software on premises is a costly endeavor that requires the attention of your IT staff 24/7 and can be a real problem for many organizations, large and small.
What is Technology as a Service?
The solution to this problem is Technology as a Service (TaaS). TaaS takes advantage of economy of scale from network providers specializing in maintaining modern hardware, software, and network resources. Organizations pay a monthly subscription fee to access the technology resources they need.
Common TaaS models
You can choose from several TaaS models depending on how much (or how little) you want to be involved in managing the technology:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – You pay for access to the computer hardware, storage devices, and networking services from a provider. You are responsible for installing and administering the operating systems and software applications. You can scale the infrastructure as your business requires.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) – Includes IaaS, plus your provider manages activities like OS installation, maintenance and updates, and other supporting activities, alleviating your staff from low-level maintenance and system administration duties.
- Software as a Service (SaaS) – Your provider manages all aspects of the maintenance and support of the hardware, OS, software applications, and network connectivity and security.
Depending on your level of service, your provider might also provide enterprise-grade security, automated data backups, and high-availability options. Before you sign an agreement, make sure you understand your responsibilities and the responsibilities of your solution provider.
Benefits of Technology as a Service
Benefit #1: Cost savings
TaaS is often (though not always) a more cost-effective solution for organizations because it avoids a significant upfront investment. Other cost factors associated with on-premises installations include depreciation, licensing, configuration, training, ongoing hardware maintenance and repairs, power consumption, air conditioning, and allocation of valuable office space.
Since the major TaaS providers build their business model on their modern and secure technology solutions, they will typically have superior security than most businesses can afford, including physical access to the building, access to computer equipment, network intrusion detection, and virus and malware protection. The costs represented by a data breach in terms of loss of intellectual property, loss of continuity of business, ransomware fees, regulatory fines and penalties, and loss of public trust can be substantial.
Benefit #2: Focus on your secret sauce
Instead of spending your valuable IT resources on maintaining hardware configurations and operating systems, TaaS lets you hand those activities off to companies that specialize in those activities. This allows your team to focus on innovation by leveraging technology to bring new products to market.
Benefit #3: Stress relief
TaaS mitigates the thorny issues related to system downtime due to power failures, failovers in the event of natural disasters, network attacks, hardware failures, and performing routine data backups and restoration, activities available from most providers. We stress “mitigate” because you will still be responsible for doing your part, such as enforcing password strength and security, training employees on phishing and other types of hacking activities, adhering to regulatory compliance (segregation of duties, data regulations, etc.) and ensure that all your systems can be restored from backups.
Benefit #4: Flexibility and scalability
TaaS gives companies access to modern technology resources without an upfront purchase, and it allows companies to scale their use of those resources up or down to accommodate business demand fluctuations.
Learn more about how ArcherPoint can put Technology as a Service to work for you, specifically with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, including:
- 24/7 remote monitoring
- Network management and monitoring
- Reporting
- Servers, storage, and virtualization
- Single sign-on
- Data security, backup and recovery, and disaster recovery
- Azure-hosted solutions (with a 99.9% uptime guarantee)
- IT consulting services and more
Talk to the cloud experts at ArcherPoint about your cloud strategy.