Understanding cloud platform services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

By: Dan Barkley, Solution Architect, Enterprise Strategy

Cloud computing and platform discussions are at the top of any enterprise conversation today. We give you a brief look at each of the three main platforms: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS.

Cloud platform services have evolved in the past couple of years and are now available in a number of different flavours, each with their own advantages and disadvantages for enabling cloud services. Our main concern is how the platforms are able to cater to the needs of the Enterprise, so we’ll take a look at each of the three available services: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service and give you a good, quick introduction to what each has to offer. If you’ve been tasked with implementing one or any of these services and are finding yourself stuck- give us a call.

Software as a Service

Software as a Service (SaaS) offers users the ability to access software hosted by a provider, over the internet through a web browser. With this delivery model, users need not worry about installation, setup or upgrades as everything runs within the browser. Companies that provide this type of service include Google, with their Google Docs productivity suite, Microsoft and their Office 365 offering, Salesforce CRM and Quickbooks, to name but a few. Corporate users pay a low monthly service fee to access these services and get the added benefit of being able to access them from anywhere, on any device. SaaS is becoming THE delivery model of choice for accounting, collaboration, HR and customer relationship management within the enterprise.

Platform as a Service

Often confused as being somewhere between a SaaS and a IaaS offering, Platform as a Service eliminates the need for organizations to maintain hardware and software infrastructures for their in-house applications. The biggest benefit to the enterprise is that development teams (local or remote) can efficiently build, test and deploy their custom applications on a common framework without the need to invest in layers of hardware and software. PaaS providers deliver the platform and the service to support software development. Examples of PaaS providers include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine, Bungee and Heroku.

Infrastructure as a Service

Providers of Infrastructure as a Service rent out their IT resources like hardware (physical and virtual), networking and storage space. Businesses needing to scale their IT environment see huge benefits to having a IaaS option as part of their IT strategy. It allows them to scale out their resources on temporary development projects or add additional disaster recovery options to their existing plans all at a reasonable cost. Users also have greater autonomy in what is installed on their rented equipment. The pricing model is typically a fee based on the quantity of resources used and how long they’re in use. Amazon Web Services was the first out of the gate in this cloud offering, however players such as Terremark, Savvis, Rackspace, GoGrid and Dell have also made a name for themselves.

Which cloud approach have you found to be the best fit for your organization?

This post first appeared on the Nonlinear Enterprise Blog.