What is IaaS, PaaS and Saas

IaaS, PaaS and Saas

There is no one-size-fits-all cloud service model for every business.

The right cloud computing model will depend on how many “layers” companies can or want to outsource to their service provider when migrating from an on-premises to a cloud solution. In addition, companies can combine different cloud service models for different purposes.

Let’s start from bottom to top of the pyramid above.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

IaaS is a cloud computing solution that consists of provisioning and managing computing resources over the Internet; such as servers, storage, networking and virtualization.

Infrastructure as a Service provides the technology and capabilities of high-standard data centers to businesses without a significant capital investment on IT equipment. IaaS customers access their infrastructure via a dashboard or API, but they do not have to physically manage it. Infrastructure as a Service offers a higher level of control compared with an on-premises solution.

This cloud service model offers a lot of flexibility to companies, as they purchase computing resources on-demand, instead of buying their own hardware. This way companies increase efficiency, scalability, redundancy and security, while keeping control of their infrastructure. Moreover, by outsourcing their infrastructure, they also delegate its setup, management and maintenance; as a consequence, they can save a lot of money, time and efforts.

Unlike SaaS and PaaS, IaaS offers more control to customers as they are still responsible for their applications, data, runtime, middleware and operating system. Furthermore, in terms of security, while IaaS providers are in charge of ensuring that the infrastructure, storage and networking are completely secure, customers must take responsibility for aspects such as access management, encryption or network traffic protection.

IaaS can be used for many purposes:

• deploying web applications,
• running a CRM,
• doing Big Data analysis,
• storing data,
• backups and Disaster Recovery plans,
• and much more.

You just need to choose the IaaS provider that better fits your needs and business strategy. Our article about some of the key aspects to consider when choosing a cloud provider can be helpful.

Some examples of IaaS are Stackscale, AWS and VMware.

At Stackscale, we offer IaaS with virtualization in the form of Private Cloud and IaaS without virtualization through bare-metal servers.

Main IaaS advantages

• Businesses keep control of their infrastructure.
• Resources can be purchased on demand, without big hardware investments.
• Automation and scalability.

Main IaaS concerns

IaaS concerns vary considerably depending on the type of cloud chosen, since companies will not leverage the same benefits from a public, private or hybrid cloud. The same way features vary significantly among providers. While vendor lock-in and performance issues might be a big concern in a public cloud, management and interoperability between environments is one of the top concerns in a hybrid or multi-cloud environment.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

PaaS is a cloud service model that provides a ready-to-use development environment, where developers can focus on writing and executing high-quality code in order to create customized applications.

Platform as a Service is delivered via the web, allowing developers to build scalable and highly-available applications without worrying about the OS, storage or updates. It provides a framework developers can use for developing, managing, distributing and testing software applications.

This cloud service model makes the process of developing and deploying applications simpler and more cost-effective. PaaS is accessible to multiple users via the same development application and it integrates web services, database engines and more to help developers with app development, testing and deployment.

Cloud-based platform services accelerate innovation, but PaaS customers only have control over what is built on the platform. So, if there is a problem with the platform’s OS or hardware, they have no control over the impact it has on their software’s performance. However, they have control over other aspects, such as anti-malware or access control.

Some examples of PaaS are Heroku, Apache Stratos and OpenShift.

Main PaaS advantages

• Simple and cost-effective applications development, testing and deployment.
• Developers can build scalable and highly-available customized applications easily and with less code.
• Faster innovation.

Main PaaS concerns

• Data security.
• Interoperability and vendor lock-in.
• Integrations and compatibility.
• Operational limitations.
• Runtime.