The cloud is a common tool for small and large businesses. However, it’s a broad idea that covers a lot of online areas. If you decide to switch your business to the cloud, it’s important to understand the differences and advantages of the each cloud services.
There are usually three models of cloud service to compare:
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
But today we’ll look at IaaS and PaaS. (Read The increasing popularity of SaaS for more information on Software as a service).
We’ll look at the concept, benefits, and variances of IaaS and PaaS. We’ll also explore the key differences among PaaS, and IaaS—so you can best choose one for your organisation.
Examples of IaaS: DigitalOcean, Linode, Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE)
Example of PaaS: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, OpenShift
Key Differences
| IaaS | PaaS | ||
| You manage | Application | Application | You manage |
| You manage | Data | Data | You manage |
| You manage | Runtime | Runtime | Others manage |
| You manage | Middleware | Middleware | Others manage |
| You manage | O/S | O/S | Others manage |
| Other manage | Virtualisation | Virtualisation | Others manage |
| Others manage | Services | Services | Others manage |
| Others manage | Storage | Storage | Others manage |
| Others manage | Networking | Networking | Others manage |
IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS is a self-service for accessing and monitoring computers, networking, storage, and other services. For instance, it allows businesses to buy resources on-demand when needed rather than having to buy hardware that needs to be installed.
Infrastructure as a service delivers cloud computing infrastructure, via virtualisation technology. These cloud servers are usually provided to the organisation through a dashboard or an API. Therefore, this gives IaaS clients complete control over the entire infrastructure. IaaS provides the same technologies and capabilities as a traditional data center without having to maintain or manage it. IaaS clients can still access their servers and storage directly, however it’s all outsourced through a “virtual data center” in the cloud.
Advantages
- Easy to automate deployment of storage, networking, servers, and processing power
- Hardware purchases can be based on consumption
- Clients keep complete control of their infrastructure
- Resources can be purchased when needed
- Highly scalable
Disadvantages
- Security
- Internal resources and training
- multi-tenant security
PaaS: Platform as a Service
Platform as a Service (PaaS), provides cloud components to certain software whilst mainly being used for applications. All servers, storage, and networking can be managed by the business or by a third-party provider. In addition the developers can maintain management of the applications.
Similarly to SaaS, in terms on delivery. Instead of delivering the software over the internet, PaaS provides a platform for software creation. Therefore the platform is delivered via the web, giving developers the freedom to concentrate on building the software without having to worry about operating systems, software updates, storage, or infrastructure.
Advantages
- Simple, cost-effective development and deployment of apps
- Scalable
- Highly available
- Developers can customise apps without the headache of maintaining the software
- Significant reduction in the amount of coding needed
Disadvantages
- Data security
- runtime issues
- vendor lock-in
- integration
In conclusion, which ever one you choose wether it be IaaS, Paas or even SaaS, PCW Solutions can deploy and maintain your system whilst also making sure your security and setup is of the highest level.
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