Introduction

The basic definition of cloud computing in simple words is – The use of computing resources, (hardware and/or software) that are deployed on a remote machine/system and delivered to the end user as a service over a network (private / public).

Although the evolution of cloud computing had quite a good amount of resistance, the technology has evolved and is considered to be a future of how IT will shape up. The main advantage of cloud computing has been to help businesses to focusses on their core without the need to worry about IT issues. As data and reports suggests, this has worked very well for many industries and hence it is considered to be future of IT.

Cloud Computing Categories

Cloud computing comprises of four key models:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Network as a Service (Naas)

Let’s discuss the above in more detail:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This is the basic cloud service model whereby user is provided with virtual infrastructure (servers / storage or data space). Virtualization is the key in this mode as it allows IaaS-cloud providers to allocate resources as required by end users (on-demand) from their large pools of physical infrastructure of data centers.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): In this this cloud service model, the PaaS-cloud providers deliver a platform or environment for development services to end users (individuals / organizations) where the user can develop and run their proprietary / in house applications. The services optionally can include operating system, a programming language execution environment, databases and web servers.

Software as a Service (SaaS): In this cloud computing model, the user is provided with an access to already developed applications that are running in the cloud (managed by SaaS-cloud provider). The cloud clients and the cloud users do not manage the environment / infrastructure where the application resides which eliminate the need to install and run the application on their own computers.

Network as a Service (Naas): This is not a very common model except in case of bandwidth providers. In this model, the user is provided with network connectivity services, such as VPN and bandwidth on demand.

Advantages & Benefits of IaaS Cloud Computing

1) Cost Savings – It helps in reducing capital expenditure on hardware and human resources which in turn reduces ROI risks.

2) Low Entry Barriers – You can simply get your cloud server to be spun up and you’re ready to go live. Various pricing options allows you to only pay for what you use / need.

3) Dynamic Scaling & Elasticity – You can easily scale your resources of your cloud server at any time which is used from the pool of resources managed by cloud provider. This enables you to purchase only required resources to get started and add more whenever you need. This is particularly helpful during seasonal sales events, etc when you can bump up your resources and scale down later.

4) Avoid management of underlying hardware / data center and backups – All of these components are taken care by your IaaS cloud provider.

5) Security – This is handled by your IaaS provider in a professional way which offloads you of securing your infrastructure.

6) Failover – This helps in keeping your service active even in case of failure of hardware components / power / network takes place since this is completely redundant in nature / setup.

7) Allows businesses to focus on core competence – Your IT requirements / setup is handled by experts which enables you to focus on key areas specific to your business and bringing innovations in it. Imagine a manufacturing firm spending resources / time on assembling / maintaining their IT infrastructure!

SoftSys Hosting provides IaaS cloud services whereby the cloud users are provided with virtual infrastructure in form of cloud virtual machines with resources (RAM / Storage Space / CPU Power / Bandwidth / etc) as per their requirement. This is completely scalable service whereby users can add / remove resources at any time – almost on the fly.