Today, nearly every company is considering at least some form of “as-a-service” deployment of software tools, and there is no question that there can be significant benefits. But any project that proposes to change the software tools that support worker activity will have some risks and costs. The mantra of adopting as-a-service technology for your own company must maximize your benefits and manage your risks.

There are four primary benefit drivers of technology as a service:

• The need to contain or reduce IT support.
• The need to contain or reduce system/hardware costs.
• The desire to substitute annualized expense for capital investment and depreciation.
• The desire to “dip your toe” into a radically different computing paradigm.