Cloud Services Acronyms

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as "on-demand software", and was formerly referred to as "software plus services" by Microsoft.

Platform as a service (PaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage web applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are online services that provide high-level APIs used to de-reference various low-level details of underlying network infrastructure like physical computing resources, location, data partitioning, scaling, security, backup etc.

Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model in which the cloud provider runs the server, and dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources. Pricing is based on the actual amount of resources consumed by an application, rather than on pre-purchased units of capacity. It can be a form of utility computing. Serverless is a misnomer in the sense that servers are still used by cloud service providers to execute code for developers.

Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) solutions include voice, messaging, 911 access, and other communication-focused APIs that allow developers to quickly and easily integrate calling, texting and other telecommunication functions directly into applications or software services.

Unified communications as a service (UCaaS) is a cloud delivery model that offers a variety of communication and collaboration applications and services. UCaaS features include enterprise messaging, presence technology, online meetings, team collaboration, telephony and video conferencing.

CCaaS stands for ‘contact center as a service’ and is defined by call center software that is hosted (or built natively) in the cloud instead of hosted on-premises. CCaaS providers maintain and develop the software (hence “as a service”), which allows call centers to focus on using the software to provide better customer experiences. The primary purpose of CCaaS software is intelligently routing contacts from all communication channels, sometimes referred to as “skills-based routing”.

XaaS or 'anything as a service' is the delivery of IT as a Service through hybrid Cloud computing and is a reference to either one or a combination of Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS). communications as a service (CaaS) or monitoring as a service (MaaS). XaaS is quickly emerging as a term that is being readily recognized as services that were previously separated on either private or public Clouds are becoming transparent and integrated.