I recently participated in a panel discussion, titled: \u201cInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS) endgame \u2013 commoditizing the data center\u201d at the GigaOM Structure 2012 Conference. While software is definitely defining the use of IaaS through Platform as a Service (PaaS), the underlying need for IaaS does not go away. In my opinion, the current pace of infrastructure and data center build out cannot be maintained, leading to a future need of resource sharing in this space.
\nResource sharing includes everything that contributes to a data center, especially the physical infrastructure. Several Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, especially in the collaboration space, innovatively optimize their infrastructure to serve their specialized purpose. Facebook, for example, has open sourced their hardware design through Open Compute. Skype, as you know, routes calls and video through their users\u2019 bandwidth, reducing the need for back-end infrastructure.<\/p>\n