Types of Cloud Computing – Detailed Notes!

June 15, 2019  

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):

 

IaaS is the lowest level of cloud solution and refers to cloud-based computing infrastructure as a fully-outsourced service. An IaaS provider will deliver pre-installed and configured hardware or software through a virtualized interface. Examples of IaaS offerings are managed hosting and development environments.

Some of the major players offering infrastructure as a service solution include Google, IBM, Rackspace Cloud Servers, Amazon EC2 and Verizon.

Benefits

• Reduces total cost of ownership and capital expenditures
• Users pay for the service that they want, on the go
• Access to enterprise-grade IT resources and infrastructure
• Users can scale up and down based on their requirements at any time

Platform as a Service (PaaS):

With PaaS, apart from simply providing infrastructure, providers also offer a computing platform and solution stack as a service. PaaS providers offer a fully configured sandbox and deployment environment for customers to develop, test and deploy their cloud applications. Examples of PaaS solutions include Oracle.com, Salesforce.com’s Force.com, Rackspace Cloud Sites, Google App Engine and Microsoft Azure

Benefits of PaaS Solutions

• Community – Most of the time, many people are involved in building cloud applications in PaaS environments. This creates a strong supportive community that can help your development team along the way.
• No more upgrades – Companies are not required to update or upgrade the infrastructure software. Instead, the PaaS provider handles all upgrades, patches and routine software maintenance.
• Lower cost – Companies face lower risk since they do not have to make upfront investment in hardware and software.
• Simplified deployment – The development team can concentrate on developing the cloud application without having to worry about the testing and deployment infrastructure.

Software as a Service (SaaS):

When talking about cloud services, most people think of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. SaaS providers provide fully functionally web-based applications on demand to customers. The applications are mainly targeted at business users and can include web conferencing, ERP, CRM, email, time management, project tracking among others.

Benefits of SaaS Solutions

• Rapid Scalability
• Accessibility from any location with Internet
• Eliminates infrastructure concerns
• Custom levels of service offerings
• Bundled maintenance and Support

Recovery as a Service (RaaS):

According to a Gartner report, 30 percent of midsize companies will have adopted cloud recovery service by 2014. Recovery as a Service (RaaS) solutions helps companies to replace their backup, archiving, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions in a single, integrated platform. RaaS providers protect and can help companies recover entire data centers, servers (OS, applications, configuration and data), and data (files and databases).

RaaS helps businesses to reduce the impact of downtime when disasters happen. RaaS is also referred to as DRaaS ( Disaster Recovery as a Service)

Example of companies doing RaaS are Geminare, WindStream Business and nScaled.

Benefits of RaaS Solutions

• Prevent temporary or permanent loss of critical company data
• Prevents permanent loss of physical infrastructure, including IT infrastructure
• Is a cost-effective way of recovering data
• Enables faster recovery while maintaining accuracy
• Offer greater flexibility on the type of backup required (either primary or secondary backup)

Businesses can benefit from cloud services by improving efficiency and reducing costs. Companies can adopt cloud services based on their priorities, areas of expertise and business processes. Like is the case with an IT project, careful planning and preparation should be done before switching to cloud services.