Welcome to cloud computing! Most cloud services are very similar, which can make it hard to choose the right one for your business. The cloud service models are divided into three categories of cloud services: SaaS (Software as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service).
Enterprises have been migrating their software systems on-premise on cloud platforms for years now. This is known as cloud computing, where the onus of hosting an application is shifted on hardware companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc., who also ensure that the consumers get necessary assists so that programming languages are efficient in accessing data from these servers.
Cloud service models are made up of various types of cloud services that are designed to help businesses in computing by offering scalable, convenient and on-demand access to IT resources over the internet. It reduces costs and increases productivity.
Businesses can take advantage of cloud computing services & cloud service models to quickly build applications without having to invest significant capital or time in building data centers. For e.g., cloud-based ERP systems empower businesses with better customer relationship management (CRM), sales automation tools, cloud storage for business documents, etc.
The cloud service model has three different categories, namely Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS) and Platform as a Service(PaaS). Each service provides different sets of functionalities based on cloud computing.
SaaS cloud service model
software applications are cloud-based services that enable companies to use hosted client/server applications without having to buy or install them on an individual computer. The cloud vendor hosts the application and makes it accessible through thin client interface, which is a computer program with limited operating system functionality. This allows employees within the organization to access all of their data from any location or device connected to the internet. The cloud provider manages network security, software updates & maintenance as well as ensures there are no compatibility issues with hardware & other cloud applications used by your business.
Iaas cloud service model
Consists of provisioning virtual machines that offer computing resources on demand. Hardware infrastructure like CPU, memory, storage etc. are provided as a cloud service.
With this cloud service model, cloud vendor also manages cloud platform & server operating systems, storage, networks etc. The cloud user is able to install any OS of his choice on the virtual machine and can use it without any installation or maintenance cost. IaaS users have full control over their VMs with root access to them. This empowers small & medium businesses to also enjoy security benefits of cloud computing like multi-tenancy while having complete freedom in hosting applications and at the same time cutting down costs by using only cloud resources needed for an application while paying only for what is used.
PaaS cloud service model
PaaS allows developers to build and run their apps and services cloud with cloud programming languages and frameworks. These cloud platforms support Internet of Things (IoT), big data & analytics, mobile apps, cloud security etc.
PaaS takes care of infrastructure management like operating systems, network devices and cloud services which helps users build cloud applications through a programming language of choice like PHP, Python, Java etc.
Some cloud service models offer more than one type of cloud service , e.g., SaaS & Paas – for example: Microsoft Azure platform is a combination of PaaS and Iaas with features that include: deployment slots (developers can test new versions without impacting production) and flexible business-logic hosting programmable access to virtual machines – while Google Cloud Platform’s cloud service models are cloud platforms that allow building cloud apps using cloud computing services like compute, data, security etc.
As mentioned earlier, cloud service models provide different functionalities & advantages depending on business requirements and level of expertise available with cloud vendor. Hence it is important to work closely with cloud vendors while selecting cloud service model for your organization’s benefit.