What are as-a-Service technologies?

Cloud-as-a-Service technologies are types of cloud computing solutions that provide on-demand access to IT infrastructure via the internet, a VPN or a dedicated network connection. Cloud-as-a-Service offerings include IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.

What are the differences between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS?

SaaS offerings enable users to access software applications via the internet. PaaS offerings provide on-demand access to a development environment, allowing software developers to easily access resources for building, testing, running and managing applications. IaaS offerings provide IT teams with on-demand access to IT infrastructure, including compute, storage, networks and more. Each Cloud-as-a-Service model enables IT teams to avoid having to procure, deploy, maintain and upgrade IT infrastructure on-premises, while enabling enterprises to pay only for the IT infrastructure they consume.

XaaS stands for “Everything-as-a-Service” (or “Anything-as-a-Service”). Everything-as-a-Service refers to an entire category of products and tools that can be purchased on an as-a-Service model, where customers pay only for the services consumed. Everything-as-a-Service enables IT teams to offload responsibility for provisioning, monitoring, maintaining and upgrading hardware and software to a third-party provider.

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Managing Multiple As-a-Service Offerings

As-a-Service offerings have transformed the way enterprises manage their IT infrastructure. From Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as-a-Service offers provide extraordinary flexibility, speed, scalability and cost savings.

They also present enormous management challenges for IT teams who frequently must juggle multiple services and clouds that have no common management framework and no easy way to migrate workloads between clouds, wherever they are located.

Dell APEX provides an end-to-end portfolio of as-a-Service and subscription solutions that simplify management of multicloud infrastructure and multiple as-a-Service offerings. With APEX, IT teams can easily migrate workloads to the cloud service that will deliver optimal performance and economics, using familiar best-of-breed software from on-premises Dell infrastructure to manage public cloud workloads.

The Benefits of the As-a-Service Model

As-a-Service technology offers enormous benefits for enterprises. By delivering applications, functions, development platforms and IT infrastructure over the internet, as-a-Service offerings have helped enterprises to be more agile and competitive while freeing IT teams from the need to deploy and manage infrastructure on-premises.

As-a-Service offerings include:

Software-as-a-Service. SaaS cloud services provide online access to leading cloud applications that are managed and continually upgraded by third-party providers.
Platform-as-a-Service. PaaS cloud-based services provide an on-demand development environment that enables enterprises to accelerate development of cloud-based applications.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service. IaaS cloud services provide compute, storage, networking and other infrastructure via the internet, VPN or dedicated connection, allowing enterprises to pay only for the infrastructure they consume.

Together, these as-a-Service solutions enable enterprises to:

Implement capabilities more quickly for faster time-to-value.
Enjoy anywhere access to applications and content.
Scale quickly and easily to meet demand and take advantage of new opportunities.
Ensure higher utilization of infrastructure investments.
Reduce the cost of infrastructure, energy and facilities.
Enhance productivity for IT staff across the organization.
Improve security and protection of information assets.

The Challenge of using As-a-Service

Despite these benefits, these multiple as-a-Service options present a serious management challenge for IT teams, especially when coupled with the need to manage public, private and edge cloud resources as well.

As enterprises seek to reap the benefits of a multicloud architecture, IT teams must simultaneously manage a variety of diverse platforms with no consistent infrastructure, operations or management tools. Managing multiple incompatible public clouds in a siloed multi-cloud environment creates more complexity and makes it difficult to mitigate risk, maximize performance, control costs and maintain productivity. As a result, the task of managing cloud deployments is often chaotic and costly, creating barriers to cloud adoption and limiting the innovation and outcomes that enterprises hope to achieve.

To solve this challenge and continue to reap the benefits of as-a-Service technologies, IT teams need a solution that can unify cloud infrastructure, delivery consistent management experience and enable IT teams to optimize the placement of data workloads for maximum value. That’s where Dell APEX can help.

Dell APEX

Dell APEX offers a broad range of as-a-Service and subscription solutions that unlock the full promise of multicloud and hybrid cloud deployments. Delivering the agility of public cloud and the control of private cloud infrastructure, APEX enables a “multicloud by design” approach to managing cloud-based services. This innovative offering extends cloud and container orchestration ecosystems to on-premises environments and enables IT teams to deploy best-of-breed Dell software innovations in public clouds.

The Dell APEX as-a-Service portfolio streamlines the lifecycle of traditional infrastructure while simplifying or offloading the management of the technology stack. Dell APEX infrastructure, platform and solution services help reduce IT workload, lower operating costs, accelerate deployment and manage end-of-life assets more securely and sustainably.

APEX as-a-Service offerings include:

Compute & HCI.
Scale VM workloads across data center and edge locations with Dell APEX Private Cloud. Subscribe to scalable and secure compute services with bare metal with Dell APEX Compute.

Storage.
Elevate cloud storage capabilities with a range of storage solutions, including elastic file, block and backup target services for private cloud or enterprise-class block, file and protection storage for public clouds.

Cyber & Data Protection.
Safeguard business operations and continuity with backup services, cyber recovery services and a data storage services backup target.

Cloud Platforms.
Modernize cloud deployments with platforms for Microsoft Azure, VMware, and Red Hat OpenShift. Utilize cloud and on-premises resources to support IT strategy and requirements. Simplify container-based application development and management. Deploy ideal VMware multicloud services to align with business needs. Deliver consistent cloud experience for VMware workloads across multicloud environments.

High Performance Computing.
Access fully managed High Performance Computing as a subscription service, enabling IT teams to focus on HPC workloads rather than infrastructure.

Devices.
Shift the burden of day-to-day support and PC management away from overburdened IT teams with managed device services. Modernize IT departments with customizable software plans on top-rated Dell devices with a PC-as-a-Service offering.

Optimize Costs. Accelerate Business. Enhance Digital Resilience.

Dell APEX boosts the value of cloud economics across your entire IT environment. By adopting a modern technology consumption model, you can increase financial flexibility, enhance productivity and mitigate risk while driving innovation.

With Dell APEX, you can:

Optimize costs.
Optimize your IT infrastructure costs with a modern consumption model that features transparent pricing.

Enhance productivity.
Boost the productivity of IT staff by reducing the time and resources required to manage Cloud-as-a-Service and IT infrastructure.

Increase resilience.
Dell APEX service level agreements enhance performance, availability and integrity of mission-critical applications and data.

Capture business opportunities.
Deploy and provision IT services faster to take advantage of market opportunities and respond to evolving business requirements.

Ensure consistency.
Dell APEX delivers operational consistency, empowering IT teams to leverage existing skillsets while enhancing application and data mobility.

Additional As-a-Service Offerings from Dell

In addition to the Dell Technologies Cloud Platform, Dell Technologies offers additional cloud-based services for optimizing infrastructure in workloads with a hybrid IT approach.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). With VDI, remote workforces can work and learn from anywhere while data remains protected behind the corporate firewall to maintain security without sacrificing performance. Flexible engineering-validated designs centralize and simplify IT management, enabling organizations to spend fewer resources procuring, deploying, testing and supporting an ever-changing VDI environment.
Data Center-as-a-Service (DCaaS). Combining the latest VMware Cloud software and Dell VxRail hardware, this cloud-based service enables organizations to focus on driving innovation rather than managing myriad data center details.