Cloud Computing Services

If youʼre considering moving your business to the

Cloud, here are three important acronyms to wrap
your head around:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a service).

• PaaS (Platform as a service)..
• SaaS (Software as a service)..
These are the three main types of cloud computing.
Youʼve probably heard of them before; theyʼre all
experiencing a surge in popularity as more businesses
move to the Cloud.
 Difference between On-premise and
services
• Not so long ago, all of a companyʼs IT systems were on-
premise
• Now you can utilize the Cloud platform for nearly all your
systems and processes.
• SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS are simply three ways to describe how
you can use the cloud for your business.
• IaaS: cloud-based services, pay-as-you-go for services such
as storage, networking, and virtualization.
• PaaS: hardware and software tools available over the
internet.
• SaaS: software thatʼs available via a third-party over the
internet.
 Difference between On-premise and
services
• On-premise: software thatʼs installed in the same building as
your business.
• Hereʼs a great visual breakdown from Hosting Advice:
 Examples of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS
• Most businesses use a combination of SaaS and IaaS cloud
computing service models, and many engage developers to
create applications using PaaS, too.
• SaaS examples: Google Apps, Salesforce, Dropbox,
• PaaS examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure
(mostly used as PaaS),
• IaaS examples: AWS EC2, Rackspace, Google Compute
Engine (GCE),
 IaaS
• IaaS businesses offer services such as pay-as-you-go storage,
networking, and virtualization.
• IaaS gives users cloud-based alternatives to on-premise
infrastructure, so businesses can avoid investing in expensive
on-site resources.
• IaaS Delivery: Over the internet.
• IaaS Advantages:
• Maintaining on-premise IT infrastructure is costly and labor-
intensive.
• It often requires a significant initial investment in physical
hardware, and then you will probably need to engage external
IT contractors to maintain the hardware and keep everything
working and up-to-date.
 IaaS
• With IaaS, you can buy what you need, as you need it, and
purchase more as your business grows.
• IaaS solutions are highly flexible and highly scalable, and you
can replace it whenever you need without losing money on
your initial investment.
 IaaS
• With IaaS, you can buy what you need, as you need it, and
purchase more as your business grows.
• IaaS solutions are highly flexible and highly scalable, and you
can replace it whenever you need without losing money on
your initial investment.
• A good example of IaaS is AWS EC2.
• EC2 provides scalable infrastructure for companies who want
to host cloud-based applications.
• EC2 users do not own the physical servers; AWS provides
virtual servers.
• So users only pay for the usage of the servers, saving them
the cost (and associated ongoing maintenance) of investing
in physical hardware.
 PaaS
• A PaaS vendor provides hardware and software tools over the
internet, and people use these tools to develop applications.
PaaS users tend to be developers.
 PaaS
• A PaaS vendor provides hardware and software tools over the
internet, and people use these tools to develop applications.
PaaS users tend to be developers.
• A cloud consumer is accessing a ready- made PaaS
environment. The question mark indicates that the cloud
consumer is intentionally shielded from the implementation
details of the platform.
• PaaS products are available with different development stacks.
For example, Google App Engine offers a Java and Python-
based environment.
 PaaS
• PaaS Delivery: Over the Internet
• PaaS is often the most cost-effective and time-effective way for
a developer to create a unique application.
• PaaS allows the developer to focus on the creative side of app
development, as opposed to menial tasks such as managing
software updates or security patches. All of their time and
brainpower will go into creating, testing, and deploying the
app.
• Built on virtualization technology.
 PaaS
• A good example of PaaS is AWS Elastic Beanstalk.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers over 100 cloud computing
services such as EC2, RDS, and S3.
• Most of these services can be used as IaaS, and most
companies who use AWS will pick and choose the services
they need.
• However, managing multiple different services can quickly
become difficult and time-consuming for users.
• Thatʼs where AWS Elastic Beanstalk comes in: it works as
another layer on top of the infrastructure services and
automatically handles the details of capacity provisioning,
load balancing, scaling, and application health monitoring.
 SaaS
• SaaS platforms make software available to users over the
internet, usually for a monthly subscription fee.
• SaaS Delivery: Over the internet.
• SaaS Advantages:
• With SaaS, you donʼt need to install and run software
applications on your computer (or any computer).
• Everything is available over the internet when you log in to
your account online.
• You can usually access the software from any device, anytime
(as long as there is an internet connection).
• The same goes for anyone else using the software. All your
staff will have personalized logins, suitable to their access
level.
 SaaS
• You no longer need to engage an IT specialist to download
the software onto multiple computers throughout your
office or worry about keeping the software on every
computer up-to-date.
• Itʼs all taken care of in the Cloud.
• Another key advantage is the payment structure.
• Most SaaS providers operate a subscription model with a
fixed, inclusive monthly account fee.
• You know exactly how much the software will cost and can
budget accordingly, without worrying about hidden
surprises.
SaaS
 SaaS
• SaaS platforms are:
• Available over the internet.
• Hosted on a remote server by a third-party provider.
• Scalable, with different tiers for small, medium, and enterprise-level
businesses.
• Inclusive, offering security, compliance, and maintenance as part of
the cost.
• BigCommerce is an example of a SaaS ecommerce platform.
• BigCommerce provides complete shopping cart software, as well
as hosting infrastructure to the user, allowing businesses to
create an online shop within minutes without worrying about
coding, hosting, or software.
Hierarchy