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The Emerging Inference-as-a-Service Market

Publisher IDC
Published Oct 29, 2025
Length 12 Pages
SKU # IDC20513436

Description

This IDC Perspective briefs on the emerging inference-as-a-service (InfaaS) market that enables organizations to deploy intelligent applications without deep expertise or costly infrastructure. Driven by developer demand and the need to bridge skills gaps, InfaaS providers offer scalable, secure, and optimized access to open and proprietary models, facilitating faster innovation and reducing operational overhead. As AI workloads grow, vendor differentiation, pricing transparency, and developer enablement are critical for successful enterprise AI deployment."As AI transforms every IT decision, organizations are taking advantage of inference as a service to bridge the AI skills gap and to accelerate their development and deployment of intelligent applications," says Adam Reeves, research director for PaaS for Developers of Modern and Edge Applications.

Table of Contents

12 Pages

Executive Snapshot

Situation Overview

Key Differences Between AI Inference and Traditional Computing

Hardware/Infrastructure

Networking and Latency Requirements

Cost and Resource Management

Benefits of Inference as a Service

Facilitating AI Development

Providing Access to Open Models

Types of InfaaS Providers

Specialized Inference-as-a-Service Offerings

Advice for the Technology Buyer

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Related Research

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