Boosting Sustainability With As-a-Service Device and Infrastructure Solutions

Widespread change over the past few years has transformed the business landscape. A surge in hybrid and remote working, with 20% of organisations looking to implement additional measures to enable more hybrid or homeworking in the next six to 12 months alone[1], coupled with a growing focus on sustainability, has driven companies to rethink their tech habits.

Notably, Device as a Service (DaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are gaining traction. A Fortune Business Insights survey predicts a colossal leap in the DaaS market, for example, soaring from $22 billion in 2022 to nearly $155 billion by 2030[2].

So, what is DaaS and IaaS all about, and how can as-a-Service (aaS) subscriptions help businesses to meet their sustainability targets? As-a-service models such as DaaS deliver a broad range of digital workplace solutions, flexible payment options, and reliable, high-quality equipment.

Meanwhile, IaaS solutions provide the power and strategic advantage of the latest data centre hardware through a pay-as-you-go business model. Evergreen solutions can be quickly scaled without incremental capital investments, ensuring organizations always have access to the technology they need without the risk of excess capacity. Proactive monitoring, management, and service support is also available 24/7 with solutions such as TruScale IaaS.

Such flexibility has seen as-a-Service solutions become increasingly popular. In a recent survey, it was noted that 7 out of 10 CIOs are currently using up to 50% aaS solutions within their tech stacks[3]. Furthermore, 60% of IT leaders are interested in as-a-service solutions for sustainability management[4].

This can have a big impact on hitting sustainability targets – companies who link their sustainability and digital transformation goals are 2.5 times more likely to be strong-performing businesses than those who do not[5].

How Lenovo TruScale can help

Lenovo TruScale is a great example of how technology and sustainability goals can be united through as-a-Service. TruScale is the industry’s broadest as-a-Service portfolio, from pocket to the cloud, available anywhere in the world, eliminating excess capacity and driving efficiencies throughout the IT lifecycle.

TruScale can optimise technology consumption, help companies scale technology needs with ease, improve energy efficiency and help manage their carbon footprint. Organisations can use TruScale to embrace a circular economy and avoid the burden of returns when it is time to refresh. This means devices are taken back, data sanitized, securely refurbished or recycled, thus helping divert e-waste and keeping resources circular.

The pay-as-you-go model is also a cost-effective solution for organisations. It shifts costs from from CapEx (Capital Expenditure) to OpEx (Operating Expenditure), helping to free up capital. It is also an efficient way to manage the footprint of end-user devices, eliminating overprovisioning and optimising resources and costs.

TruScale IaaS solutions with metering capabilities can also make it easy to monitor power consumption, utilisation, and temperature in your data centre. This means you have real-time visibility of your infrastructure’s health and energy use and optimising your datacentre using with Lenovo TruScale IaaS can help reduce CO₂ emissions and power by up to 20%[6].

Access to the latest fully integrated solutions empowers teams to carry out their roles as efficiently as possible, and this can make a huge difference to any business. According to Forrester, 50% of employees surveyed said their PCs are out of date or insufficient[7], while Lenovo found 92% of organizations would definitely or probably consider adding new as-a-Service offerings over the next two years as a result of a changing business model[8].

Embracing the resources you need

Whether you’re opting for end-user devices that can be flexed as per your tech requirements, or need an on-prem data centre with a cloud-like flexibility, an aaS solution means you’ll only deploy the resources you need.

By inserting predictability into your IT management, as a Service models give you the flexibility you need for your business to evolve. But the real joy of an aaS solution is that it can also drive tangible sustainable outcomes and manage the carbon footprint of your IT environment.

[1] CIPD, Flexible and hybrid working practices in 2023

[2] Fortune Business Insights Device as a Service Market Research Report, 2023

[3] Lenovo, Human-centered Insights to Fuel IT’s vision

[4] Lenovo, Global study of CIOs

[5] WEF: Bridging Digital and Environmental goals

[6] TruScale IaaS accurately reports on power and CO₂ emissions allowing managed infrastructures to be designed, implemented and tuned not only for performance and capacity but also for CO₂ emissions. Ongoing monitoring of the system using Lenovo XClarity Power Monitor and systems performance figures are used to optimise power consumption by the infrastructure. CO₂ emissions will be calculated based on the localised carbon footprint of the power source used

[7] Forrester, ‘Invest in EX, Drive your bottom line growth, 2020

[8] Lenovo, ‘The rise of the resilient CIO’, 2022