The cloud-based as-a-service market has been one of the fastest growing sectors over the past 5 years. So much so that it’s estimated that organizations will spend $94.8 billion on these cloud-based solutions in 2019 alone.
As more organizations come to rely on cloud-based solutions, it opens the door for additional industries. The big question is what does this trend mean as organizations continue to invest in audiovisual (AV) technologies? For the AV industry, this trend means a number of existing deployments have new opportunities to experience meaningful changes.
Obviously, as AV technology providers develop and rollout new features, it may mean adding some new equipment to enhance what already exists. Although many of these add-ons will in themselves be nominal. After all, in a pure as-a-service environment, the majority of the future add-ons do not need to be as complex iterations as when companies go the traditional route of buying new equipment each time they want to benefit from a new capability.
For example, an AV technology provider may find new software-based methods of manipulating imagery. Another example could be the availability of AV control deployment as a paid service. Or, the ability to further enable deployments to utilize self-generated content.
Why is As-a-Service a Big Deal?
Much like the cloud-based apps that have become crucial components in today’s business environment, companies have the opportunity to benefit from constant improvement because providers can roll out the next version without significant changes. Those using the AV solutions would operate with a software-based license.
As with any cloud-based offering, embracing AV as-a-service can significantly impact how companies look at these deployments from a budgeting perspective. Specifically, it becomes an operating expense rather than a capital expenditure. In some instance, this may mean that organizations are able to go ahead with new capabilities far sooner than they could when leveraging the capital expenditure route.
What is Fueling the As-a-Service Trend’s Constant Growth?
The easy answer is the need for speed is intensifying.
Specifically, technology advances are moving at a faster pace than most organizations can realistically invest. For instance, state-of-the art technologies like edge computing and analytics require seamless access to cloud processing in order to deliver the type of results organization expect.
Additionally, the ability to consistently address evolving customer expectations with truly immersive experiences means organizations need to stay relevant. A cloud-based approach makes the need for constant evolution feasible.
