Commentary: Infrastructure As A Service - Fail Or Success?
ArchitectingIT, Saturday, October 5th, 2024
To counter the challenge of the public cloud, many traditional on-premises infrastructure vendors introduced the concept of 'as-a-service' models, including unit-based consumption. Data from financial accounts show that, in many cases, these services form only a fraction of overall revenue. Is the 'as-a-service' market relevant or just a box tick for analyst reporting?
Traditionally, computing hardware was sold to businesses as a single purchase with a fixed period of product maintenance attached. In the server and storage world, for example, that period was typically three years, with the option to extend maintenance after the initial warranty had elapsed. Generally, the post-warranty period attracted a higher cost for maintenance, because the equipment was older and so more likely to experience failures, but also because vendors wanted their customers to 'upgrade' to the latest hardware.
This cycle, generally referred to as a 'forklift upgrade', is well-known in the industry and something we've commented on many times