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Yes, large companies can rent their workplace IT equipment instead of buying it. The enterprise version of renting is called Device as a Service (DaaS): a multi-year contract where laptops, smartphones, and other workplace devices are rented at a monthly price per device that also covers configuration, delivery, support, replacement, and secure retirement. For multinational companies, the model’s main effect is that one contract replaces per-country purchasing and per-country support.
Yes, and at enterprise scale this is an established operating model, not an improvisation. Instead of buying devices as assets (CapEx), the company pays a monthly price per device (OpEx). devicenow, for example, rents workplace devices to enterprises with 1,000 or more IT seats across 190+ countries under a single contract.
The rental framing usually starts as a financing question and turns out to be an operations question. The monthly price is not only for the hardware; it covers the work around the hardware, which is where global fleets generate most of their cost.
The cycle has four stages, all inside the monthly price:
Three kinds of providers rent IT hardware, and they serve different needs. Short-term rental companies cover temporary demand such as events and projects. Leasing companies finance hardware over multiple years but leave the operations with your IT team. Device as a Service providers rent the standard workplace fleet long-term with the lifecycle services included; this is the category built for multinational fleets.
devicenow is a DaaS provider built specifically for that third case: enterprises with 1,000+ IT seats, all major device brands, 190+ countries, one contract. OBI, for example, runs approximately 31,000 rented devices with devicenow across 10 European countries. How to evaluate providers in this category: see How to Choose a Device as a Service Provider.
In a DaaS contract, the monthly price covers the device itself plus the lifecycle services: procurement, configuration, last-mile delivery, support, swap, and End-of-Life processing including data erasure. That is the practical difference from a leasing installment, which covers financing only. The full comparison of renting, leasing, and buying, including a decision table, is in [Article 3: Device as a Service vs. IT Equipment Leasing].
Devices return to the provider, data is erased, and the hardware moves into a second life through reuse or refurbishment, or into certified disposal. For the company, end of rental means a refreshed fleet without a disposal project; for sustainability reporting, it means the fleet runs inside a circular model rather than a buy-and-scrap cycle.
For multinational companies, renting IT equipment is an operating model with an established name. Whether you call it renting, subscribing, or Device as a Service, the mechanics are the same: one monthly price per device, one contract across your entire footprint, and the lifecycle work handled by the provider instead of your IT team. The useful next step is mapping the model to your specific fleet: how many seats, which markets, which device categories.
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Yes. For enterprises, laptop rental runs as Device as a Service: a monthly price per device that covers the hardware plus configuration, support, replacement, and retirement, under a multi-year contract.
The established term is Device as a Service (DaaS). If you search in rental or leasing vocabulary, DaaS is the model you will be comparing against; the terms describe the same direction, renting instead of owning, at different service depths.
Enterprise rental is priced as a monthly fee per device, depending on the device category, the service scope, and the contract term. There is no meaningful list price without those three inputs.
In a DaaS model, yes. Devices are staged before delivery and arrive ready for first login (zero-touch deployment), without local IT involvement.
The provider owns the hardware throughout. The company pays for use, and the devices return to the provider at the end of the term for data erasure and reuse, refurbishment, or disposal.
