Many of the enterprises across verticals have adopted the work from home model to safeguard employee well-being and maintain operational efficiency, surging the demand for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based collaboration solutions. For instance, Microsoft Team platform users increased to 44 million globally due to the high demand for collaboration solutions. While the standalone 8×8 Video Meetings cloud solution experienced a more than 300% increase in registered users in the last week of February across ~150 countries. Other popular SaaS-based collaboration tools gaining traction are Google Hangouts, Cisco Webex, Slack, Zoom, Ding Talk, WeChat Work, and Tencent Meeting, among others.
As cloud computing has become widely adopted over the last decade, the use of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) have all grown significantly.
Infrastructure-as-a Service (IaaS)
IaaS solutions provide a way for an organization to outsource their IT infrastructure and computing services to a third party provider. This can include hardware, networking equipment and storage space, as well as software such as operating systems, network security applications and monitoring tools. According to Gartner’s 2020 forecast report on IaaS solutions, the global IaaS market was worth $80 billion USD in 2019 and will reach $107 billion USD by 2023.
Platforms-as-a Service (PaaS)
The PaaS market is technology that runs on top of an existing IaaS or cloud system offering additional services such as database management and server hosting solutions. It is typically sold on a subscription basis and offers companies with the flexibility of not having to purchase complicated software for short term projects or business rollouts. According to research firm IDC’s Global Cloud Services Forecast for 2020, PaaS solutions are growing faster than any other cloud service, with expected annual growth rates of around 24%.
Software-as -A Service (Saas)
Saas solutions offer companies off the shelf solutions for managing their IT needs from their desktop or mobile devices. These solutions are designed to be user friendly and help businesses reduce costs associated with purchasing expensive enterprise software applications from vendors such as Microsoft or Oracle.According to IDC’s GlobalCloud Computing Market sizing Report 2019.