Yet another XaaS!
Communication as a Service is already defined by an Wikipedia entry:
“Communications as a Service (CaaS) is a type of outsourced enterprise communications solution where a third party vendor (known as CaaS vendor) is responsible for the management of hardware and software required for delivering Voice over IP (also known as Voice as a Service), instant messaging, and video conferencing applications using fixed and mobile devices. A synonym for CaaS is Unified communications as SaaS (Software as a Service). The CaaS model has evolved in the telecommunication industry in a similar manner to the SaaS model in the field of software delivery. It is an example of the everything as a service trend and shares many of the common characteristics. The evolution of the CaaS industry is probably because CaaS and SaaS share philosophies and they both require networking capabilities and have an on-demand delivery system.”
Many vendors like Avaya, HP, Cisco, Siemens SEN would be capable to move their stacks into a SaaS model. However most are hesitating too long and it looks like to war about CaaS is now open. Google announced on June 16 that it intends to get 1 million phone numbers reserved.
It’s time to fix strategy and move fast for the other vendors, Google will dominate this market very fast otherwise.