Here we have explained the three important layers of cloud computing.
Think cloud technology as an onion.
Like an onion, the structure of the cloud is lined with several layers. If you have a very basic understanding of cloud, you need to understand this to explore the capabilities of cloud that can help your business find new ways to be more sophisticated in terms of changing customer needs or market.
And understanding of the several layers in cloud technology is really important in this context.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
This is perhaps the most familiar layer. If you login a webpage in order to get a tool or service, you are using SaaS. It is generally free of cost.
SaaS is used on a subscription basis for the functions belonging to sales, marketing, and project management. It is provided to you from the vendor’s server. The vendor takes care of all upgrades, support and uptime. The examples of SaaS are Concur, Zendesk, Amazon Web Services, Dropbox and Slack. This model is used by end users.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS is defined as the place where software is developed in cloud computing terminology. Simply put, it provides a platform and environment to let developers build software/apps and services over the Internet. This way, PaaS lets you avoid the expense and complication of purchasing and managing software licenses, infrastructure and other resources. Plus, sophisticated development software and analytics tool are made available at most PaaS platform which the small businesses may not afford. Examples of PaaS include Microsoft Azure, Engine Yard and Salesforce Heroku.
This model is mainly used by the software developers.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
An IaaS vendor provides hardware, software, storage and network working over the Internet. It is vendor’s responsibility to handle maintenance, updates, backup and security for the system. Popular examples of IaaS are Rackspace, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Engine. IaaS helps save cost on hardware and software; and ensures scalability, and support. The major users of this category are IT administrators.
Key Takeaways:
- Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS provides hardware and software over the Internet.
- Platform as a Service provides cloud application platform to the software developers.
- Software as a Service offers cloud applications which are used by end users directly.
And these services have one thing in common—they are made available over the Internet.