Hardware as a service (HaaS) is said to be making headway in the retail and wholesale sector in companies that are looking to outsource their IT requirements.
An article on CIO Dive explored how HaaS is catching up with Software as a service (SaaS) in the IT services sector with companies looking to not pay internal IT departments but are looking at subscription based models with outside IT companies.
The article explains: “Hardware as a service (HaaS) is a way for companies to lease everything from printers to servers to smart phones, putting the worry about maintaining those devices into another company’s hands.”
HaaS as a subscription model means that the devices are owned by an external IT services provider company and are serviced and maintained as part of a contract model. The article details, part of these contracts are normally bundles “like maintenance, part replacement or an entirely new device if it breaks.” Of these devices, printers are the most common leased items.
Talking to CIO Dive, Matt Mead CTO of SPR, said: “Globally and over the next few decades, there is a huge market for HaaS vendors. The trick is to provide a compelling message that a) the user’s experience will be better (i.e. service will be better) and b) it will cost less money than how most companies are managing software.”
Exploring the retail sector, the article explains: “Spiceworks expects to see growth in the HaaS model for all types of hardware. It found 10 percent of companies lease other types of hardware like servers, networking equipment, desk phones, desktops, laptops, smartphones or tablets.”
Peter Tsai, Senior Technology Analyst at Spiceworks, told CIO Dive “Think about things we’re used to leasing, such as cars or houses. For a traditional car lease, you pay a monthly fee to use a vehicle for a set amount of time. You can do that with a laptop or desktop or server or printer.”
“Spiceworks expects growth of HaaS will remain relatively flat over the next few years except within companies that already use the HaaS model, or those that lease software as they (and people in general) use more subscription services in their general lives — things like Netflix for movies and television, Spotify for music or Stitchfix for clothes,” The article concludes.
