INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IaaS)
Cloud infrastructure services, known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), are self-service models for accessing, monitoring, and managing remote data center infrastructures.
Companies can purchase IaaS based on consumption, similar to electricity or other utility billing instead of having to buy the hardware outright. IaaS providers have dashboards and APIs to control cloud servers and resources. IaaS clients can access their servers and storage like traditional servers with a higher order of scalability.
Enterprises can outsource their IaaS and build a virtual data center in the cloud. The advantage is not to budget or invest in capacity planning or physical maintenance. IaaS clients have actual control over their infrastructure over users of PaaS or SaaS services. The primary uses of IaaS include the actual development and deployment of PaaS, SaaS, and web-scale applications. Many IaaS providers now offer databases, messaging queues, and other services above the virtualization layer as well. End users gain with IaaS is infrastructure on top of which they can install any required platform. Companies' IT pros are responsible for updating these if new versions are released.
IaaS Examples:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Cisco Metapod
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Compute Engine (GCE)
- Rackspace Open Cloud
- IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.
IaaS Use-Case: Companies can extend current data center infrastructure for high peak seasons like increased Christmas holidays and Thanksgiving time. They don’t need to invest huge investments in infrastructure for a short period.
BENEFITS:
- Save substantial capital costs with zero in-house server storage and application requirements.
- Scale up or scale down quickly as your needs change.
- Access data anytime, from anywhere: at home or on the road, and increase mobility and productivity.
- Avoid server upgrades, data backup, hardware replacement delays, and the risk of server crashes
- Avail reliable and flexible backup/recovery solutions.
- High security, privacy, and compliance.