Anything as a Service? Learn about the newest concepts in Cloud

New acronyms are used in cloud computing to express key concepts and the great number of services each of these classify. While IaaS (infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service), are the three types of cloud computing that are often used by people in the business, there are people within the IT industry who are still unaware or unsure of what acronyms such as MaaS, C-MaaS, CaaS, DaaS or XaaS are.

Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) refers to enterprise monitoring. Monitoring as a Service allows businesses to remotely monitor and therefore manage networks, applications and services. Using data collectors or probes, information about applications and environments is gathered remotely into matrices. The information is then analyzed in host servers.

MaaS has several advantages, such as reducing costs in many cases – the service is charged only for the used services and usually, there is no monthly or initial cost. Also, the consumer has the possibility of monitoring the status of their key application regardless of location. So, using MaaS, businesses are free to focus on business growth while information gathering and analysis is handled by experts.

Cloud Migration as a Service (C-MaaS) is an upcoming cloud service that helps companies migrate their physical servers to just about any cloud stack.  This is completed in a fraction of the time that it would take if you were to perform a physical to virtual conversion.  This is a technology to watch and one that will ease the pain of physical to virtual migrations.  Take a look at my article “Is Cloud Migration Becoming Easy” to learn more.

Communication as a Service (CaaS), also known as hosted communications, allows consumers to implement communications services such as VoIP, VPNs, PBX and Unified Communications, without costly investments regarding purchasing, hosting and managing infrastructure. This is advantageous for the consumer because the company does not require their own trained personnel.

The CaaS services normally provides reliable basic phone systems and additional advanced Unified Communications functionality such as video calling, Web collaboration, chat, real-time presence and unified messaging. This functionality is being offered by the vendor from one or more remote, secure and reliable data centers.

XaaS or ‘anything as a service’ is a collective term standing for a number of things including ‘X as a service’, ‘anything as a service’ or ‘everything as a service’. The acronym refers to the delivery of IT as a Service through hybrid Cloud computing and is a reference to either one or a combination of Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Communications as a Service (CaaS), Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) or Cloud Migration as a Service (C-MaaS).

For each of the numerous services offered by the Cloud, consumers will understand the benefits and how they will fit in their business.

Photo source: https://www.sxc.hu/photo/466316