Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud service delivery model that offers foundational cloud infrastructure services with pay-as-you-go billing. The other two main cloud service models — PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) — are built on IaaS solutions and are more abstracted than IaaS.
The IaaS industry is expected to see its revenue grow to around $220 billion in 2025. One feature that highlights the flexibility of IaaS solutions is scalability. By default, most IaaS providers have a redundant architecture to prevent a single point of failure and permanent data loss.
IaaS is important because it lowers the financial barrier for accessing computing resources. The advantages of IaaS center around cost-effectiveness, control and flexibility, while its disadvantages are generally related to configuration issues. IaaS is used for various workloads, including data storage, web services and applications, testing and development, and data analytics.
IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS - IaaS solutions provide the foundational resources for building other services. PaaS offers a preconfigured environment typically used for software development, and SaaS supplies ready-to-use software.
In cloud computing, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a delivery model characterized by giving users direct access to the underlying computing resources, including storage, networking, virtualization and compute. Why Is IaaS Important? IaaS is important because it lowers the financial barrier for accessing computing resources.
IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS - IaaS solutions provide the foundational resources for building other services. PaaS offers a preconfigured environment typically used for software development, and SaaS supplies ready-to-use software.
Most cloud computing platforms offer IaaS services, including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and more. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) are some IaaS examples from AWS.
If you want to implement IaaS, you should evaluate your business needs and goals, explore your IaaS provider options, plan and design your architecture, deploy your resources and perform routine maintenance. Identify and access management is crucial to prevent unauthorized access to your cloud environment.
IaaS solutions serve as the foundation for every cloud service; they form the building blocks on which other cloud services are built. Whether you are trying to build software or are configuring an environment to build it, the journey starts with IaaS solutions.
The difference between SaaS and IaaS is that SaaS delivers ready-to-use software, while IaaS delivers the components you need to build a platform for developing software. The difference between IaaS and PaaS is that PaaS delivers an environment that’s ready for software development.