Biometrics-as-a-Service (BaaS) applies the well-established benefits of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to biometrics. Its cost-effectiveness is fueling its rapid growth, as the BaaS market is projected to be worth $2.9 billion by 2022.
As with SaaS, BaaS offers a means for a company to incur the expenses of a biometric system as stable, predictable operating costs paid for by subscription, instead of larger upfront capital expenditures with unpredictable maintenance costs. As with SaaS, setup of BaaS is relatively fast and inexpensive compared to purchase of hardware and software,, and so there’s less risk. Customers can generally unsubscribe from the service at any time. The lower upfront costs and risks make the capabilities of biometrics available to more organizations.
Maintenance expenses can be unpredictable, and this is also curbed in a BaaS model. Infrastructure costs such as hardware and software maintenance, updates and security are are managed by the BaaS provider.
Biometrics-as-a-Service offerings are also inherently scalable. Pricing can be based on actual consumption, not on forecasted consumption. This “pay-as-you-grow” model makes it easier to scale biometrics needs of an organization cost-effectively and with less risk.
APIs vs. solutions
Different types of biometrics-as-a-service are available:
Stateless REST services: This model provides computational results for biometric computations, such as a comparison (a similarity score) or for biometric liveness detection (a liveness score). There is no data storage.
- For example, submit two face images and receive a similarity score
Solutions: Complete biometric capabilities are provided, including:
- Browser-based enrollment
- Biometric data storage and management
- One-to-many search
- Orchestrated services and configurable workflows.
Use cases for solutions
Some use cases for a BaaS solution include:
- Identity data duplicate prevention: Avoid re-enrolling existing identities.
- Know your employee: Determine if an applicant worked for the enterprise under a different name.
- Patient identification: Prevent misidentification of healthcare recipients.
- Know your citizen: Prevent voter and/or benefits fraud.
