The world of ____ (fill in the blank) as a Service is exploding. Especially the acronyms. Here are just a few:
- Software as a Service
- Platform as a Service
- Infrastructure as a Service
- Communication as a Service
- Security as a Service
- Everything as a Service
And how about Software + Services? Last week I had a plumber come to my house to replace a corroded valve in my basement. I could say I bought Plumbing as a Service (another PaaS). When I pay my electric bill, I buy Electricity as a Service. And when I pay my cable and internet bill, maybe I am buying Fun as a Service.
You can probably tell that all these XXX as a Service acronyms are driving me nuts. When I pay for my time and billing system, I pay a monthly fee for my time and billing system. I don’t care that it’s SaaS (it is). I just care that it’s easy to use, I can access it from a browser or mobile device and it does what I need it to do. Just like my cable service and my electricity. You can call it what you like, but it’s just a valuable service to me. Rather than confusing the marketplace, we need to talk about the value of what we offer and cut out the marketing hype (Hype as a Service?).
So will we get away from all the acronyms and just call these things services? I am sure we will eventually, but it can’t come soon enough for me.
photo credit dok1