What is SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS? Knowing the differences between each of these cloud services will help enterprises determine the right choice. Read on.
What is SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS? For people who are not familiar with the terms or are just being introduced to the concepts, they can be quite confusing. Here is an attempt to differentiate between the services.
Cloud Services
When enterprises decide on switching operations to the cloud, it is essential to understand the various cloud models and services and what they do. Knowing the differences between each of them will help in finding the right solution for the company. There are many as-a-service models in the market now. But, the most prominent ones are:
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
The global cloud services market is on a path of rapid growth, accelerated partly by the Covid-19 pandemic and increasing remote operations policies. The overall market projection for cloud services in 2021 is about $306.9 billion. SaaS is a leading player in this market with a forecast of $120.9 billion. IaaS and PaaS follow closely with projections of $64.3 billion and $57.3 billion, respectively.
Before getting into the differences between these cloud models, here is a look at some of the overall benefits cloud services bring to enterprises, regardless of the industry they belong to.
- Cost Savings
- Security
- Flexibility
- Increased Collaboration
- Disaster Recovery
- Loss Prevention
- Automatic Updates
Differentiating Saas, PaaS, & IaaS
First up, SaaS. Software as a service uses the cloud/internet to deliver applications to users. These applications are hosted and managed by a third-party provider. SaaS helps organizations to start functioning smoothly without the burden of setting up all software infrastructure from scratch. The end-user only manages or uses the software, often via a web browser.
Here's a look at some of the services offered within the SaaS.
- Physical data center infrastructure
- Networking and security firewalls
- Servers and storage
- Operating systems
- Development tools
- Data management and analytics
- Hosted applications
PaaS offers frameworks for developers to build upon and is used to create custom applications. The enterprise or a third-party provider manages all the servers, storage, and networking while developers manage the applications and data. The delivery model of PaaS is similar to SaaS and includes
- Physical data center infrastructure
- Networking and security firewalls
- Servers and storage
- Operating systems
- Development tools
- Data management and analytics
IaaS enables enterprises to purchase infrastructure resources on-demand instead of having to buy the hardware. The cloud servers included within IaaS are typically provided to the company through a dashboard or an API, whereby the client gets control over the applications, data, middleware, operating system, and runtime. The major services offered through IaaS are:
- Physical data center infrastructure
- Networking and security firewalls
- Servers and storage
VEXXHOST Cloud Services
SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS is a highly beneficial model for users and providers alike. Businesses get the opportunity to focus on things that they do best while the software service is provided to them for fair prices. Enterprises often need cloud hosting services to support their operations, and that's where VEXXHOST clouds come in. For many of our clients, our OpenStack-based public and private clouds are the preferred choices because of their highly scalable and secure nature.
Speaking of private clouds, you can now run on a fully agile and customized cloud from VEXXHOST, with no licensing fees and smooth 2-week migration. In fact, we're ready to put our money where our mouth is. We're so confident in being able to save you at least 20% or more on your current cloud infrastructure expenditure that if proven wrong- we'll give you $1,000 credit to our public cloud.
Excited? Find out more.
