There has to be a better way.

That's the implied promise of service-as-subscriptions, whether for productivity tools (Office 365) or in-the-cloud data centers (Amazon Web Services). Offload the responsibilities to third-party shoulders, the thinking goes, in exchange for a knowable monthly fee.

[ Related: We’re inching closer to DaaS Windows]

Enterprise acquisition of personal computers and other devices – phones and tablets, as well as hybrid 2-in-1s – has recently been given the same treatment by vendors eager to u nload hardware and wrap other profitable services, typically lifecycle management, around what had been a more-or-less leasing model. Called PC-as-a-service (PCaaS) or the more inclusive Device-as-a-service (DaaS), this acquisition-and-management approach is just now getting traction, and will, say experts, evolve over the next few years.

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