Information technology is no longer the cryptic rarity it used to be — the now fundamental commodity unfailingly contributes to rapid business growth around the globe. IT as a Service (ITaaS) is the prominent and increasingly popular cloud-based business model for delivering hardware, software, and technology support to businesses. These managed service models handle end-to-end technology architectures – from startups to full-fledged enterprises.
All business sizes benefit from ITaaS, which is probably why Market Screener predicts a 31% revenue increase in the sector in the next five years. While companies of all sizes are shifting toward these models, ITaaS is especially beneficial for startups.
How ITaaS Benefits Startups
Don’t assume ITaaS to be just a service—ITaaS is a business model that works in tandem with internal IT departments. ITaaS discards old tech silos for new self-service and third-party offerings in an integrated framework driven by the business, not the technology. These new architectures create unparalleled business value – especially for startup organizations.
At its core, ITaaS drives innovation within a market-driven sustainable model. The practical benefits of ITaaS for startup organizations include some of the same benefits of any cloud service model:
- Minimal investment on upfront IT costs
- Subscription-based predictable and transparent costs with no overhead spikes
- High potential for tax advantages
- 24 x 7 x 365 monitoring and support
- Frequent cloud security updates
- Zero hardware and software depreciation
- Streamlined scalability
All of which are obvious prerequisites for successful startups, but scalability is the no-brainer. ITaaS is a subscription service, so sizing up or down expenditures as businesses require allows them to efficiently react to changing capital levels. ITaaS will also prevent cost overruns when capital is modest and expedite growth when capital suffices.
Why Startups Should Invest in ITaaS
Agility for Market Manipulation
Staying agile is crucial for market manipulation, and ITaaS inevitably supports return on investment for startups by competitive advantage. It grants technology infrastructures to remote experts, so internal teams can focus on building, financing, and rolling out new products.
No Overhead IT Cost Burden
Initial over-expenditure kills startup growth, but ITaaS expedites startup growth without the burden of excessive overhead. ITaaS builds a scalable IT department into the business model and removes the threat of delays due to excessive HR costs as new organizations struggle to balance growth with staffing.
Investors Prefer ITaaS
ITaaS allows startups to strategically manage IT with efficiency and flexibility. Startups especially realize the investor-related benefit: venture-capitalists understand that ITaaS architecture does the best job of aligning IT with business models in a startup environment.
For example, ITaaS scales based on user consumption and adapts to natural shifts in productivity, so startups can pay only for what they consume, instead of dealing with unused hardware depreciating in a server room during lean times.
Keep Up with Competition
Mid-size and large enterprises are already shifting corporate infrastructures to adapt to these new service models, so new and maturing startup organizations need to utilize ITaaS if they want a lasting space in an increasingly cloud-based, agile market.
Universal ITaaS Business Model
As mentioned earlier, ITaaS can benefit more than just start-up organizations. Whether your business is mature or still developing, evaluating your current IT infrastructure and aligning it with current digital transformation trends is key to organizational success. Your business should always make strides to continually evaluate its ITaaS options.