SaaS, PaaS, IaaS – Businesses are hearing a lot of hue and cry about different cloud computing services. The following post offers a detailed introduction in case if you have been living under a rock.
Cloud computing is usually described as delivery of computing services like servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, etc over the internet. The technology is mainly determined in two ways; either on the basis of the cloud location or on the service that the cloud is offering.
Cloud can be classified on the basis of cloud location as:
- Public
- Private
- Hybrid
- Community Cloud
While based on a service that the cloud is offering:
- IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)
- PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)
- SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)
- Storage, Database, Information, Process, Application, Integration, Security, Management, Testing-as-a service
How does it work?
Cloud is usually made of layers, i.e. a front end layer and the back end layer. The network layer is used to connect end users’ devices. Now each application comprises of its own server as well as the central server which effectively monitors traffic on all other servers and communicates well through protocols. The software used in a cloud computing system simply allows computers to communicate, copy the data and store in at least, one other device. Hence, it requires twice the number of storage devices for the company that provides the service.
Cloud Users:
- Can access their data from anywhere at any point of time. All they need is a strong internet connection.
- Are relieving themselves from the stress of buying software licenses for each and every tool they need to install.
- Choose the cost effective way out by copying and storing the data in the cloud.
- Need computers with less processing power.
- Save money on IT support as well as server
- Can solve highly complex problems easily and speedily simply by using a grid of computers available on the cloud
Where Do I Pull the Switch: Cloud Location
Public cloud- This means that the whole computing infrastructure is located on premises of a cloud computing company. Therefore, the location remains separate from the customer and has no physical control over the infrastructure. For users, this type of cloud will provide best economies of scale as they are inexpensive to set up. Which means the hardware, application and bandwidth costs are covered by the provider.
For Example- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM’s Blue Cloud, Sun Cloud, Google AppEngine and Windows Azure Services Platform.
Private Cloud – As the name implies, it means the cloud infrastructure is used solely by one customer/organization. Although being remotely located, it cannot be shared with others. Companies have an option of choosing an on premise cloud in order to have physical control over the infrastructure but it gets far more expensive.
Hence, private clouds are usually not an option for an average Small-to-Medium sized business.
Hybrid Cloud – It is but obvious that a hybrid cloud means using both private and public clouds, depending on the purpose. For example, during peak periods individual applications data can be migrated to the Public Cloud. Things can be handled pretty gracefully.
Community Cloud – In this type of cloud, an infrastructure is shared between organizations featuring shared data and data management concerns. For instance, a community cloud can belong to a government of a single country and can be located both on and off the premises.
What Can I Do With It: Cloud Service
As explained before, the common cloud services include are Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), PAAS: Platform as a Service, IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service. The “As a Service concept has become so important and ubiquitous that it’s driving people across the globe crazy. However, not all cloud service concepts are created equally. So, here down below I would like to explain the major types of cloud computing services in detail.
Software as a Service (SaaS) – These services represent the largest cloud market and are still growing at a faster pace. With the help of the web, applications can be successfully delivered and managed by a third-party vendor whose interface can be easily accessed on the client’s side. Fortunately, most of the SaaS applications run directly from a web browser. This means there is no need for any kind of downloads or installations required, excluding some plugins.
As a result, it becomes easy for enterprises to streamline their maintenance and support because everything can be managed by vendors themselves, starting from applications or runtime, data, middleware, OSes, virtualization, servers, storage, and networking.
Gmail, Salesforce, Google Apps, Twitter, Slack, JIRA are among examples of SaaS run as clouds. So, you see, SaaS is everywhere!
Platform as a Service (PaaS) – PaaS are mainly used for applications and other development while providing cloud components to software. It is a framework through which any software development company can build or customize applications. As a result, the development, testing, and deployment of the application becomes pretty quick, simple and cost-effective. Moreover, the framework is delivered through a hybrid model; it uses both public IaaS and on-premise infrastructure.
Examples include Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Force.com and Google App Engine. It may quite interest you to know that a PaaS (Force.com) sits under a highly customizable SaaS (salesforce.com).
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – Last but certainly not the least, cloud infrastructure popularly known as IaaS is a self-service model used for accessing, monitoring and managing remote data center infrastructure. Unlike SaaS and PaaS, the model users are responsible for several activities ranging from managing applications, data, runtime to middleware and OSes.
It completely gets you out of the hardware business. This means one can virtually request for additional memory, disk space, processing power, servers and anything else that you had housed in your data center.
Examples of IaaS products include Microsoft’s Azure, Amazon’s EC2, Rackspace, and various web hosting offerings.
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