Definition

Communications as a Service (CaaS)

Part of the Networking and communications glossary:

Communications as a Service (CaaS) is an outsourced enterprise communications solution that can be leased from a single vendor. Such communications can include voice over IP (VoIP or Internet telephony), instant messaging (IM), collaboration and videoconference applications using fixed and mobile devices. CaaS has evolved along the same lines as Software as a Service (SaaS).

Next Steps

The CaaS vendor is responsible for all hardware and software management and offers guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). CaaS allows businesses to selectively deploy communications devices and modes on a pay-as-you-go, as-needed basis. This approach eliminates the large capital investment and ongoing overhead for a system whose capacity may often exceed or fall short of current demand.

CaaS offers flexibility and expandability that small and medium-sized business might not otherwise afford, allowing for the addition of devices, modes or coverage on demand. The network capacity and feature set can be changed from day to day if necessary so that functionality keeps pace with demand and resources are not wasted. There is no risk of the system becoming obsolete and requiring periodic major upgrades or replacement.

Read more about it at:
> Joseph Hoftstader outlines the technical fundamentals of CaaS.

This was last updated in April 2008
Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • network fabric

    - Network fabric is an industry term that describes a network topology in which devices pass data to each other through interconnecting switches. (searchSDN.com)

  • Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

    - Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is the part of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) that supports service data flow detection, policy enforcement and flow-based charging. (searchSDN.com)

  • Mininet

    - Mininet is a software emulator for prototyping a large network on a single machine.  (searchSDN.com)

Glossaries

  • Networking and communications

    - Terms related to networking and communications, including definitions about network protocols and words and phrases about data transmission.

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

Dig Deeper

People Who Read This Also Read...

Tech TalkComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top