OK, Enough with the 'as-a-Service' Acronyms

I'm starting a Friday Afternoon Rant-as-a-Service (FARaaS) because I can't take any more "as-a-Service" acronyms. Things have gone too far. Every time I see a new one, I cringe.

Today I cringed in learning about a Proof of Concept-as-a-Service (POCaaS) offering from InterCloud Systems, referring to a new service to test software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) technologies.

Apparently anyone can just start using any "as-a-Service" acronym they can think of and hope it gets picked up. I just might ditch this job and start doing that full time, providing Acronyms-as-a-Service (AaaS) -- though As-A-Service-Acronyms-as-a-Service (AASAaaS) would be fun, too, just hard to capitalize correctly.

Anyway, Intercloud is adding PoCaaS to its already impressive arsenal of acronyms it advocates, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

In some of its materials, it actually refers to VIaaS (Virtual Infrastructure-as-a-Service). But a quick Web search shows VIaaS can actually stand for Video Intelligence-as-a-Service, and POCaaS could be confused with Payload Operations Concepts and Architecture Study (which, at least, isn't a service).

See why this has to stop?

Some people actually track this stuff, which is how I learned HaaS could stand for Hardware-as-a-Service or Humans-as-a-Service.

That last one just led me to coin Huh?-as-a-Service (H?aaS). I don't even want to see what Humans-as-a-Service entails. It makes me wonder about job security. I could be replaced by a Punch-Drunk Bloggist-as-a-Service (PDBaaS).

When there are so many service acronyms, how do you tell what stands for what? How do you know what MaaS means? It could be any of these: Malware/Manufacturing/Mashups/Media.

How about Madness-as-a-Service?

In addition to Software, SaaS could be Security or Storage.

How about Stupid-as-a-Service?

In addition to Infrastructure, IaaS could be Information/Integration/Identity.

How about Insanity-as-a-Service?

Enough of this. I'm starting to think about finding Beer-as-a-Service (BaaS) somewhere.

What's the dumbest "as-a-Service" acronym you've come across? Share here your thoughts, which will be put into our Disqus "Comments-as-a-Service" (CaaS) system for all to enjoy.

Posted by David Ramel on May 29, 2015