Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) Gains New Adherent

The “as-a-service” craze continues. Besides the major stack components of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), there are more discrete services constantly emerging.

One we’ve been hearing a lot about is Video-as-a-Service (VaaS). Here, video, often in the form of video conferencing, is delivered as a service from a provider. This way, IT doesn’t have to buy and manage an admittedly complicated infrastructure.

iQ Solutions Group (iQSG) is the latest market entrant, having just announced a video service leveraging the company’s existing portfolio of video conferencing tools, as well as its current data center and managed services offerings.

"The requirement for businesses to be quick to market and able to meet the changing demands of their clients makes VaaS a great tool for any size company. The rapid growth and deployment of tablets and smartphone technology provides easy access to anyone, anytime and device. Interoperability with Microsoft Lync, phones lines and any standard video endpoint extends and enhances prior investments," added Tom Richardson, principal at iQSG.

The company is hitting what it hopes is a hot market. “Videoconferencing is quickly surpassing audio conferencing as the main form of communication in business,” noted Mark Nield, another principal at iQSG. “Many organizations have made an investment in video endpoints for point to point calls and now faced with the need to support multipoint conferences. iQSG's VaaS offer provides an alternative, low cost entry for multipoint calls without the need for a large capital expenditure for a video bridge. Our VaaS offer also provides flexibility and metrics for our clients to determine the right size video bridge if they wish to purchase.”

The market is, in fact, poised for growth. The video conferencing market is expected to pull in $24 billion globally by 2017, at least according to research from Global Industry Analysts, Inc. MSP Today, meanwhile, just covered news that Yorktel has a new cloud video conferencing suite called VideoCloud, which can be integrated with Microsoft Lync and Office 365.

The new VaaS offering joins iQSG’s existing line of Voice/Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS), and Storage Replication-as-a-Service (SRaaS) for Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery, and Wireless (WaaS).

On the video hardware side, iQSG is partners with Avaya, Polycom and Cisco.