If there’s any concept that underscores the transformative nature of the Information Age, it is the speed with which increasing amounts of digital data can be shared
In a country like the United Kingdom, widely considered a global leader in the information communications technology (ICT) industry and home to London – the world’s second most connected place for tech after Silicon Valley – software as a service, or SaaS, is speeding toward adoption success across a variety of B2B and B2C industries.
For AEC professionals using 3D laser scanning, that means an unprecedented ability to share enormous amounts of point cloud data anywhere in the world with internal and external project stakeholders, and to do so at lightning speed in a cost-effective, data-secure environment.
For the uninitiated, SaaS is the technical term for an offshoot of cloud computing. The way it works is simple: companies house software on their own or a third-party server and grant other companies access via subscription, instead of the client company having to purchase the actual software and upload it on to their own data network or individual employees’ computers. Some of the most well-known SaaS solutions include Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, Dropbox and Netflix.
Software as a service: From mainframe to mainstream
While SaaS as a mainstream term has gained currency only in the last decade or two, it’s a concept that dates back to the 1960s, when companies like IBM built the first mainframe computers.
At the time, the cost of data storage was so high that for a company to tap into this newfound computing power was simply out of reach. Instead, IBM would sell limited access to these machines in a system known as “time sharing”. Compared with buying the computers outright, this was a huge leap forward in cost efficiency and allowed banks and government offices to process large datasets.
With modern SaaS, the same rules apply. Rather than a having to purchase physical software (sometimes multiple copies) and worry about version updates, compatibility issues, in-house data security needs and related IT troubleshoots, all that headache is outsourced to the SaaS provider – for a price.
For AEC professionals, VDC managers, BIM managers, structural engineers, MEP engineers, and facilities managers, SaaS enables the wireless transfer of huge sums of laser scanner-acquired data shared via the cloud at high speed, as well as the ability to monitor the progress on a project thousands of miles away without a physical visit and its associated travel, lodging and health and safety costs.
Additional benefits include:
- Software use flexibility.
- System compatibility.
- Enhanced workflows.
- New workflow potential.
Flexibility is an especially noteworthy asset as subscription models can be tailored to specific SaaS use or even to specific employees. By adopting a more “modular approach” SaaS disrupts the “one size fits all” paradigm that tends to bloat corporate budgets and eat into profits.
So while the Information Age may be about 60 years old, SaaS remains the relative newcomer. And software as a service for AEC is just beginning to take off.
FARO Technologies UK Ltd
Tel: +44 2476973000
Please note: this is a commercial profile.
