Surfacesas

Surfacesas is a service model for provisioning and managing interactive surfaces such as touch displays, projection surfaces, interactive tables, and AR/VR touch interfaces through a cloud-based platform. It treats hardware and software as a managed service rather than a capex purchase, drawing on SaaS and IoT concepts.

Delivery options vary. Providers may lease hardware and host the software stack, or offer software-only subscriptions for customer-owned devices. A multi-tenant cloud layer handles provisioning, updates, monitoring, and security across a fleet of surfaces, with APIs for content delivery and app management.

Core components include device management, content and application lifecycle management, identity and access control, telemetry and analytics, and security features such as encryption and remote administration.

Applications include retail digital signage, interactive kiosks, collaborative workspaces, education labs, public information displays, and healthcare wayfinding.

Benefits include reduced upfront cost, predictable operating expenses, scalable deployment, and centralized governance. Challenges involve data privacy, cybersecurity, latency and offline operation, hardware refresh cycles, and potential vendor lock-in.

The term surfacesas lacks a formal standard and overlaps with IoT platforms and digital signage ecosystems. It is an emerging concept, with varying offerings across providers.