What is Device-as-a-Service (DaaS)?

As the cloud has shown, you don’t have to own hardware to use it. Device-as-a-service (DaaS) takes the concept beyond servers into laptops, phones and network appliances; any device, in fact, that your business needs.

Your DaaS provider gives you access to devices backed by management services, so that you no longer need to buy them and manage them yourself. In return, you pay a predictable monthly fee per device or per user.

The approach is ideal for today’s business climate, which is characterised by uncertainty, innovation and a need to drive down costs.

How does DaaS help businesses adapt to new technology?

DaaS makes it easy to add devices easily as your business grows and to refresh them as new technologies become available. As businesses increasingly adopt AI, for example, they may need more AI-capable computers and phones, and a DaaS provider can advise on and source the right hardware.

What are the financial benefits of DaaS?

From a financial perspective, you eliminate the up-front costs (capital expenditure or CapEx) of acquiring hardware, and the additional costs of installing it. This outlay is instead smoothed out as operational expenditure (OpEx), over a period of several years. In many businesses, this better matches their subscription-based income flows.

Can DaaS simplify support for a remote workforce?

Since the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns worldwide, many more people have been working from home. But many IT departments don’t have the resources or the logistics capabilities to effectively support device delivery, management and maintenance across so many distributed locations. For companies like these, outsourcing device management to a specialist can boost efficiency markedly. We have 67 global logistics centres, for example, which makes it easy for us to quickly get devices wherever they are needed and to support them wherever they travel.

How does DaaS improve device security?

Security is a top concern today. Whether devices are in the central HQ or home offices, it’s difficult for your IT department to ensure that the entire estate is patched. Yet, this is essential to cut the risk of vulnerabilities that would allow intruders into the corporate network. Tasking an external expert with the day-to-day device management, unencumbered by other business pressures, can be the ideal solution.

Is DaaS a sustainable or ‘green’ option?

When devices reach the end of their life in your business, a DaaS provider may be able to refurbish them and redeploy them in other businesses or organisations. Because they handle so many more devices than any one company, a DaaS provider is also better placed to ultimately arrange for them to be recycled.

DaaS vs. Traditional Procurement: A Comparison

The following table summarises how DaaS compares to traditional device procurement:

Why is DaaS growing so quickly?

Given all the advantages of DaaS, it’s not surprising that it’s growing fast. AnalystView Market Insights valued the market at US$ 34,680.33 million in 2024 and is predicting growth of 26.9% per year from 2025 to 2032.

Find out more about our DaaS offering here.

NSC Global