Three Main Variations of Cloud Computing: IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS

Cloud computing has given us the capability to pool computing resources with scalability and accessibility to our demands. Being the next big thing in the IT world, cloud computing is a revolutionary concept that is enabling organizations to grow and scale as per their own capabilities, regardless of the ability of their tech infrastructure. Scaling the company’s growth is no more a complicated task with cloud computing.

Within the sphere of cloud computing, there come the three types of cloud services or applications, namelySaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Let us dive further down to understand what these terms actually mean.

SaaS

SaaS, or Software as a Service, is a model which distributes software. Here, the applications are hosted by different service providers and they deliver these applications to the customers through internet. It means that the need for installing and running an application from the customer’s own computer is eliminated with this service. One of the best examples of SaaS that you see around you is the Google Docs service. It basically brings you what MS Office does, without the need for installing it on your own PC; just log into the Google Docs website and you are all set. Brilliant, isn’t it?

SaaS simplifies the process of updating, adding and removing content as each of these operations needs to be performed only once in order to deliver the benefits to all users. With the software being run at one central location, the users’ geographical locations are no more a constraint and it can be accessed from anywhere. Additionally, it also removes the need for an organization to have the enterprise licenses as it is an on-demand service.

PaaS

PaaS stands for Platform as a Service, and is a mechanism for delivering a computer platform or a solution stack in the form of a service through the use of cloud applications and infrastructure. PaaS is what a user can use to develop the environment for creating new software and applications without purchasing the requisite infrastructure and software in-house. With PaaS, the consumer has to control the applications that run on the cloud and not the infrastructure it runs on. It is how a company can build as well as deliver web applications through the cloud.

IaaS

IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service, as the name suggests itself, is the delivery of computer infrastructure. It isalso commonly known as a virtualization environment in the form of a service. It can be viewed as a complete evolution of virtual private server systems. It uses the cloud in order to supply infrastructures that would otherwise require to be purchased for running the organizations’ IT infrastructures. It includes several components, such as memory, servers, storage and many others, which allow a customer to scale up or down depending on the need. Before the advent of IaaS, huge purchases of infrastructure were required in order to deal with a sudden spike in the need for resources, which was often an unnecessary and risky budget move.