Top 3 Cloud Service Models

Cloud consulting services are part of many IT enterprises as well as other organizations. As more and more companies are realizing the potential of going cloud for better utilization of resources as well as lower dependence on hardware. Companies and the end-users get complete access to a variety of services such as software, information, and resources. You only need effective internet connectivity to build and run your application and software.

A cloud model usually provides three service models; namely Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas),  Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-service. Let us dig each in detail.

IaaS – Infrastructure-as-a-Service 

IaaS is one of the renowned cloud service models where you get access to distributed virtualized computing resources such as networks, storage, and servers. System administrators manage everything in this model and they provide convenient access to all users. 

IaaS cloud infrastructure pattern provides the following benefits:

  • Transparency – You can request a general location zone for virtual machines
  • Pay-per-use – You can save hardware investment and pay for the resources you use
  • Flexibility – You can request a variety of computational and storage resources
  • Shared Resources – You can access a pool of shared resources and thus higher utilization rate can be achieved
  • On-demand Services – You can access or request services as you like
  • Manageability and accessibility – You can access resources from anywhere and anytime.

PaaS – Platform-as-a-Service

In the PaaS service model, you need not buy and own the hardware and software. PaaS offers a virtual environment for developing, running, deploying, and managing applications online. Developers are the principal users of PaaS. It is also known as the middleware service model used to provide a virtual environment with shared tools and resources by eliminating the need for managing the complexity of infrastructure. 

IaaS cloud infrastructure pattern provides the following benefits:

  • Collaboration – geographically situated people can come together and work on a project
  • Versatility- You can access different databases and programming languages and other resources for the development
  • Simplification – You need not worry about updating servers. Everything is managed by a PaaS provider.
  • Testability – Different tools make the testing application programs more convenient
  • Elasticity – The resources such as network, storage, and servers required to deploy an application can be accommodated as per the varying volume of requirements. 
  • Transparency – Your PaaS provider manages everything from patches to maintenance. There will be no server issues. 
  • On-demand services – You can use additional software development tools if you want to
  • Accessibility – You can access all PaaS services through thin web browsers anytime from anywhere.
  • Pay-per-use – You pay for what services you consume

SaaS – Software-as-a-Service

The most sought-after part of any cloud platform will be SaaS. It is widely used by all sorts of companies and persons. The volume and different services the platform provides include applications, storage, servers, and so on. 

SaaS cloud infrastructure pattern provides the following benefits:

  • Scalability – Scaling up and scaling down is easy
  • Reduced time to benefit – The software is ready to use and no need to waste time on installation and configuration
  • Lower costs –  license costs for software and the maintenance cost are lower since its a multi-tenant environment

In a nutshell

All these service models ensure cloud security and considering the business goals you can choose a service model. IaaS provides sharing of distributed resources such as storage, networks, and other relevant computing resources for the end-user. He can run and deploy applications including operating systems. Operating system support and software development frameworks are provided in PaaS. SaaS delivers end-user applications on the cloud infrastructure. You can access it from any device as long as you have the credentials. 

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