SaaS, PaaS and many more aaS..

As the demand for cloud computing is increasing day by day, cloud providers are providing services which can make users use cloud services without much knowledge of the cloud or with greater flexibility in tools. The user can now decide to use a predefined cloud configuration or to create their resources according to their business needs.

These services are generally SaaS, PaaS or IaaS. We will go into deep about each and after reading this complete article you will know which service is best suited for you.

So let's dive into it.

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service as the name suggests gives you to complete infrastructure(obviously virtual) on demand. Rather than having your own VMs, and database centre, you use the cloud provider's resources according to your demand.

Examples of IaaS:

1. AWS EC2
2. Google Compute Engine

Advantages of IaaS

• High Flexibility
• Less cost
• High Scalability

When to refrain from using IaaS

• Security
• Maintenance

SaaS: Software as a Service

Software as a Service makes software available to users over the internet. They are ready to use. Users don't have to worry about used infrastructure. All the underlying architecture layers are handled by SaaS providers.

Examples of SaaS:

1. Google Apps
2. Slack

Advantages of SaaS

It- Ideal for startups

• Security and maintenance are handled by the Service provider

When to refrain from using SaaS

• No control
• Less customization to features

PaaS: Platform as a Service

Platform as a Service delivers both software and hardware solutions to the user. It provides benefits for both IaaS and SaaS.

Examples of PaaS:

1. Google App Engine
2. AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Advantages of PaaS

• Scalable
• Speed To Release
• Cost-Effective

When to refrain from using PaaS

• Less Optimize for some tools
• Integration constraint

Other than these 3 services, there are other services which come under XaaS(Anything-as-a-Service).

Examples:

• CaaS(Communication as a Service): Services like IM, VoIP, and video conferencing are provided
• DaaS(Desktop as a Service): Provides services like storing, and backing up user's desktop apps data
• SECaaS(Security as a Service): Provides security from viruses, authentication and encryption and other security services which are then integrated with the company's infrastructure

and many more.

With the increasing demand of the business, several such services will be getting introduced and these services will be evolving or replaced by new demands.

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