The cloud as technology has garnered much attention in the recent past. Today, organizations of every type and size require cloud services. The pandemic has just expediated their importance four-folds.
Cloud computing services and technologies have transformed how businesses acquire and oversee infrastructure. As every business enters the cloud ecosystem, they must know about the different types of cloud computing services the cloud ecosystem has to offer.
Cloud computing services come in various types, but all these services come with some basic features and benefits, which can be categorized into these primary cloud offerings. Regardless of their size, businesses can put themselves in these cloud computing services.
Types of cloud computing services
Cloud services are broadly categorized into the below-mentioned services. These services are also known as Cloud Computing Stack. Let’s now delve into the details of each stack.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Serverless computing
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS
Infrastructure as a Service offers its users all essential compute, storage, and networking resources on-demand or on a pay-as-you-go basis. Migration to IaaS helps businesses reduce on-premises data centre maintenance and gain real-time business insights. Enterprises also get the flexibility of scaling their IT resources up and down as per demand.
Maintaining physical data centres and services is a costly affair, but with IaaS in place, organizations can skip this cost. Every resource has its price, and one pays only for the resource needed.
- Platform as a Service – PaaS
PaaS is a complete development and deployment ecosystem in cloud technology. PaaS will help businesses deliver the most straightforward cloud-based tech to a whole cloud backed application. All enterprises must purchase resources as per their needs on a pay-as-you-go basis.
PaaS is also similar to IaaS, consisting of – servers, storage and networking, business intelligence services, and more. PaaS can also back a complete web application lifecycle from start to finish. Businesses can also avoid the extra cost of purchasing and managing software licenses, underlying application infrastructures, and other expensive resources. One only manages applications and services they develop, and the cloud service provider manages everything else.
- Serverless computing
In a serverless computing system, developers build applications quicker as it does require them to manage infrastructure. Businesses here should also understand that being in a serverless computing environment does not eliminate the fact that the servers are still running the code. The serverless name comes because the duties associated with infrastructure provisioning and management are invisible to the developer. This helps developers ignore the unwanted and focus on delivering more value to the business. Serverless computing allows companies to be focused on innovation and leave the rest to the servers.
- Software as a Service – SaaS
SaaS allows organizations to stay connected to a cloud-based app run via the internet. E.g., emails, calendaring, etc.
SaaS is complete software solution businesses can purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis. Enterprises rent the use of an application for their business; the web browser is used to connect the users. All the other infrastructure is located in the data centre of the cloud service provider. They manage the hardware and the software, as per the service agreement, and ensure the app’s security and data. SaaS lets organizations get up and running with an app at a marginal cost.
As businesses move towards a digital transformation phase, cloud technology has played a significant role in the transitioning moment. Cloud tech is here to stay, and so are their services. If you are planning to move from legacy systems to modern ones or have already moved. Allow us to make this journey a smooth one for your organization.