What Is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Amazon, IBM, EMC, Microsoft, Google… what do these services have in common? All of them encourage cloud computing development and continue to use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). So, what is Infrastructure as a Service? It is one of the three basic service models of cloud computing along with Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). It provides access to the computing resource (we can call it “cloud”) through the Internet.

How Does IaaS Work?

Now, let’s get into the details and look at 3 simple examples to understand better what IaaS is:

1. In enterprise infrastructure IaaS is utilized by internal business networks, for instance, it can be used to create private clouds where business stores their data and run applications they need to work with.
2. Iaas also serves as a cloud hosting. Cloud hosting provides hosting for websites on virtual servers which take their computing resource from vast underlying networks of physical web servers. It has lots of advantages, including the fact that its security is guaranteed by many servers, it has a high level of website performance, redundant data storage and lower pricing.
3. IaaS can be utilised by enterprise as a Virtual Data Center. A Virtual Data Center is built from interconnected virtual servers which enhances cloud hosting capabilities.

IaaS Characteristics

As with any other service IaaS has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s have a look at its benefits first:

• Infrastructure as a Service is scalable, since it is available anytime the client needs it and if a customer needs more resources than expected, he can get them right away.
• If you want to access the service from any location, IaaS will connect wherever there is an Internet connection.
• You can reduce your expenditures associated with infrastructure and data centers. Cloud provider supports and maintains the underlying physical hardware that supports IaaS service and as a result, you can same time and cost on the client side.
• One more significant benefit is that if one data center goes offline, the IaaS service can still run successfully. So, when one server switches, there are no failures, and nothing to worry about.

As with any technology, there are a few disadvantages with IaaS. It depends on a specific provider and makes the customer or organization responsible for backups and upgrades of software, tools, database systems, etc. Security is also a concern, although this is not unique to IaaS. It’s the same concern that surrounds all of cloud services, since data stored in the cloud can be stolen or lost more easily.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Infrastructure as a Service is a practical solution, because it provides cost effective solutions for IT challenges. Infrastructure virtualization technologies allows you to implement all the functionality you need on one platform, and it develops important IT infrastructure outsourcing. IaaS will take away a burden of resource intensive, networking IT infrastructures, and data processing infrastructures.