Introduction
If you're thinking about moving your eCommerce business to the Cloud, here are three important acronyms to remember: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. There are many more XaaS service models, but IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS are the most basic cloud service models. You've probably heard of them; they're all gaining popularity as more businesses migrate to the Cloud. They are under the category of service models of cloud computing. As the name suggests, they provide some sort of service to their clients in terms of management, scalability, reliability, security, storage, portability, resources, and many more. Which one to choose at what time is really important to understand for every individual who is running their business or planning to do so.
You’ll be surprised to know the popularity of these models amongst today’s deployed businesses:
- IaaS has a market share of around 12%. (up from 6 percent).
- PaaS is currently the most popular model, with a market share of around 32% and a projected increase in 2020.
- SaaS accounts for roughly 24% of all enterprise workloads (up from 14 percent in 2016).
With adoption rates like these, cloud computing is quickly becoming the norm, and many businesses are abandoning on-premise software entirely. This now must make you more curious about today’s discussion.
When compared to on-premises hardware and software, cloud-based solutions – IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS provide several significant advantages. Let us go over these advantages briefly in order to understand why cloud computing is so popular today.
Scalability
On-premises solutions are difficult to scale because the type of hardware required is determined by the demands of your application. If your app receives a lot of traffic, you may need to significantly upgrade your on-premises hardware. This issue does not exist with cloud services, which can be quickly scaled up or down with a few clicks. Cloud services are an excellent solution for dealing with peak loads. Businesses can use whatever computing resources they require with cloud-based services.
Cost-effectiveness
Cloud computing eliminates hardware costs because the hardware is provided by a vendor. There is no need to purchase, install, configure, or maintain servers, databases, or other runtime environment components. Furthermore, with cloud-based solutions, you only pay for what you use, so if you don't need extra resources, you can simply scale down and avoid paying for them. It is also referred to as pay as you go.
Performance
Cloud providers outfit their data centers with a high-performance computing infrastructure that ensures your applications have low network latency. Low latency refers to a computer network that is designed to handle a high volume of data messages with minimal delay (latency). These networks are intended to support operations that necessitate near-real-time access to constantly changing data.
Availability
Cloud solutions are immediately available after payment, so you can begin using a cloud service without wasting any time. It is not necessary to install or configure hardware.
Security
To ensure the highest level of security, cloud infrastructure is housed in secure data centers. Data is backed up and easily recoverable. Furthermore, cloud vendors protect your data by employing network firewalls, encryption, and sophisticated tools for detecting cybercrime and fraud.
Now, this has surely made one thing clear as a user and manager, you bear the most responsibility for on-premise IT infrastructure. When your hardware and software are all on-premises, you and your team are responsible for managing, updating, and replacing each component as needed. Cloud computing allows you to delegate the management of one, several, or all of your infrastructure to a third party, freeing you up to focus on other things like your code and your relationships with your customers.
There are three types of cloud computing as-a-service options, each with a different level of management: infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)(the base layer), platform-as-a-service (PaaS)( the intermediate layer), and software-as-a-service (SaaS)(the topmost layer).
Customers are able to focus more of their attention on business rather than managing their IT infrastructure thanks to higher levels of abstraction. Let's look at each of these service models in more detail:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS, or infrastructure-as-a-service, is a step away from on-premises infrastructure. It is a pay-as-you-go service in which a third party provides you with infrastructure services such as storage and virtualization as you require them, via a cloud and the internet.
For example, when the owner rents out their home to a needy person without furnishing it. Only the infrastructure is provided, and the client is responsible for the duration of their stay. Likewise, IaaS provides infrastructure services to their clients. The operating system and any data, applications, middleware, and runtimes are your responsibility as the user, but a provider gives you access to and management of the network, servers, virtualization, and storage you require.
To be precise, the vendor manages the hardware infrastructure and the customer's IT staff installs, runs, and manages the operating systems, software, and data.
Advantages Of IaaS
- Useful in applications with a highly variable workload that require the IT infrastructure to scale up and down in response to demand.
- Ideal for enterprises that want to exercise some control and administration over their applications and data.
- There is little risk of vendor lock-in.
- The platforms and services provided by IaaS are adaptable, scalable, and dynamic.
- Companies gain complete control over their infrastructure.
- The cost varies according to usage.
- One piece of hardware can be accessed by multiple users.
- IaaS services are reasonably priced.
Disadvantages Of IaaS
- In a multi-tenant environment, virtual machines (VMs) may be vulnerable to security breaches.
- The workforce may require additional training to learn how to manage IaaS.
- Bills for high workload computing may be high.
When to Use IaaS?
Startups and small businesses may prefer IaaS to save time and money on purchasing and developing hardware and software.
Larger organizations may prefer to retain complete control over their applications and infrastructure, but they also want to buy only what they consume or require.
Companies experiencing rapid growth appreciate the scalability of IaaS, and they can easily swap out specific hardware and software as their needs change.
IaaS Examples
The following are ten companies that offer IaaS platforms for a variety of business needs (some also offer PaaS or SaaS models):
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Google Compute Engine (GCE)
- IBM Cloud
- Microsoft Azure
- Rackspace
- Linode
- Cisco Metacloud
- Digital Ocean
- Vultr
- Oracle Cloud
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