Rap as a Service (RaaS)

RAP is the risk assessment program run by Microsoft to help IT professionals analyze and mitigate risk associated with the current systems. RAP became popular, especially after the cloud came into the picture. As more and more organizations started using cloud computing, service providers started to think of services that can be provided over the internet.

A number of vendors were already running troubleshooting, diagnostics and security services but the scope was until then limited to their own cloud. The multi-billion enterprise Microsoft became the first to offer risk management as a service and as expected a plethora of organizations followed tracks.

What is covered in RAP?

Risk assessment program includes complete troubleshooting, diagnostics and mitigation of vulnerabilities likely to surface in the system. The service provider may also offer added software and apps with license valid until the expiry of the service.

The RAP provider may not offer you complete protection and may only cover basic vulnerabilities. There are service suites however to buy complete protection from the provider. The 360 protection troubleshoots any risk that the network may ever encounter but is somewhat more expensive, in fact, 2 to 3 times more expensive than entry-level plans.

What’s RAP as a service (RaaS)?

RaaS works like any other service on the cloud. The Cloud service provider will connect remotely to a system in your organization that has admin-level access. He may prompt you to download tools to facilitate this initial connection. You may choose to keep or uninstall the program once the diagnostics has been done.

Not all diagnostics service is offered over the web; most still function offline. Although almost as much effective as RaaS, offline diagnostics service cost more because the risk assessment provider has to account for the commute and stay of its agents.

What is covered in RaaS?

A single provider normally offers around 5 RaaS suites, with each suite specializing in its diagnostics. Depending upon customer requirements, the suites may be customized to fit the consumer’s network.

A good-enough RaaS should offer –

   - Transaction speed

   - Slow boot time

   - Hung/unresponsive screens and icons

   - Crashes and glitches

RAP may only be offered for the Active Directory. You can ask your provider to also troubleshoot the dormant/inactive directory by moving it to active.

Advantages of RaaS

RaaS is relatively more convenient than offline diagnostics when the problems are program-related. If there are persistent hardware issues, remote diagnostics may not make much sense.

   - It is cost-effective

   - RaaS is rapid. It may take offline diagnostics service two to three days to solve issues. RaaS, however, is fast and convenient.

   - It promotes that nearly all software service can be performed online or remotely.