What is IaaS?
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is another form of Cloud-based service. Essentially, it refers to the use of remote infrastructure based on subscription, This model allows users to ‘rent’ infrastructure, removing the need for investing in and maintaining their own.
More specifically, the resources referred to are virtualized computing resources along with supporting services to go along with them. For example, system monitoring, security (not to be mistaken with security for small businesses), load balancing, backups, and more.
Also Read –
- 15 PaaS examples that help build your apps quickly
- What is SaaS? See the list of successful SaaS examples
1. Cherry Servers
Unrelated to the brand of mechanical keyboard switches of the same name, Cherry Servers focuses on the server infrastructure side of things. Based in Siauliai, Lithuania, Cherry Servers has a solid 19-year track record in helping clients build their servers.
When we say servers, it isn’t just virtual servers either. Here you can work with multiple forms of server setups; it depends on your needs. If you just need a slice, there are virtual server slots to consider. If you need more, the sky is virtually the limit.
All you have to do is state your purpose, and they can construct and help you operate the perfect environment: No more technical headaches, extended deployment phases, or costly mistakes.
2. Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a name that comes up often no matter whether you’re thinking about SaaS, IaaS, or Paas. The company is justifiably proud of Azure since it is one of the dominant forces in all three categories.
In IaaS, customers make use of Azure to deploy various configurations of managed infrastructure. Because of the very versatile nature of these services, Azure IaaS is suitable for a wide range of business needs.
Rather than focus on the technological advantage of IaaS, Microsoft has positioned Azure along the lines of business benefits. For example, touting compliance, analytics, unified delivery, and a great deal of flexibility – especially in cost.
3. Amazon Web Services
Where there is Cloud, Amazon isn’t far away and the company is a top competitor for Microsoft’s Azure. The brand is highly identifiable with the public Cloud and IaaS in particular. Its offerings do cover the entire Cloud spectrum.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is easy to use and has been known to include a massive array of tools. Best of all, it is virtually limitless yet gives customers the advantage of flexibility and affordability, very important elements as businesses scale upwards.
It does have a few drawbacks though and an especially big one is with regard to EC2 limits. This may hamper business operations, depending on how you’re using the service. Resources may be limited by region, possibly leading to unintended bottlenecks.
4. InMotionHosting Flex Metal Cloud
With the launch of Flex Metal Cloud, InMotion Hosting has diversified its traditional web hosting business model into something exciting. Powered by OpenStacks, Flex Metal Cloud allow users to start small and build private on-demand cloud platform at any size quickly.
Their Hosted Private Cloud offering is most interesting. This allows their IaaS users to get access to the hardware that lies beneath their Cloud service at minimum budget. Entry plan comes with cluster of 3 hyper-converged servers at $597.60 per month.
Other two components include Ceph Object Storage and Bare Metal as a Service – which cover enterprise data storage with fault management capabilities and API-delivery servers.
Also read our InMotion Hosting review.
Visit Flex Metal
5. Google Cloud Infrastructure
Google has always been known as an innovative company and its Cloud Infrastructure business is built in the same mould. Using a variation of technologies, Google aims to build security through depth in layers.
The company owns one of the largest network backbones around, seamlessly connecting their massive spread of data centers around the world. Essentially, it has its own Cloud on a global scale – something it is justifiably proud of.
Unfortunately the company has somehow not managed to garner the support that AWS and Microsoft have seen and it lags behind these two behemoths in enterprise Cloud service market share.
Check out these 5 hosting services powered by Google Infrastructure.
6. IBM Cloud
IBM Cloud is another classic example of how top Cloud providers cover the entire spectrum. Its complete product includes a comprehensive IaaS segment as well. This covers compute elements, network resources, storage, and more.
Most unique about IBM Cloud is their Bare Metal as a Service (BMaaS) offering. This allows their IaaS users to get unprecedented access to the hardware that lies beneath their Cloud service. Another notable product under their IaaS range is Cloud Object Storage.
Unfortunately, IBM Cloud has been less impressive in its own business performance. The company trails behind in Cloud market share, well below top dogs Amazon and Microsoft.
7. Vultr
Vultr has stated as its mission the desire to simplify the Cloud. They try as much as possible to standardise common tasks through an easy to use dashboard while retaining the scalability that is the nature of IaaS.
For example, deployment of many web apps can be done with a single click and you can have almost anything running quickly. These aren’t just simple apps like Wordpress, but also extend to more complex things like entire virtualized servers.
Also check out Cloudways – a PaaS provider built on Vultr, Digital Ocean, and Amazon AWS infrastructure.
Visit Vultr
8. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is the IaaS arm of its Cloud business. Through this, it provides powerful compute (and other infrastructure) related services. The scale of OCI enables it to meet the demands of large-scale organizations with ease.
Their IaaS structure enables Oracle to deliver on-demand scalability for enterprise workloads. This is done through the combination of their other autonomous services. Wrapping round it all is a security layer that tightly integrates where needed.
Unfortunately, Oracle has never really played well with other vendors and this shows through in some of their Cloud services as well, even down to the tool level.
9.Digital Ocean
Many of those in the web hosting industry may be familiar with providers like Digital Ocean. Although Digital Ocean (DO) focuses on the areas of web hosting and web application deployment, it is nonetheless a good example of a niche IaaS provider.
DO offers users piecemeal allocation of various infrastructure resources that they can combine to customize a Cloud to their unique requirements. From Droplets to Kubernetes, and storage spaces – anything you need can be found here – in whatever amounts you like.
Hosting-specific focused cloud platforms like DO enable developers to quickly build and deploy powerful sites and applications.
Visit Digital Ocean
10. ServerCentral
ServerCentral provides computing infrastructure, but not only at an IaaS level. In fact, they go past the Cloud and also include on-premise infrastructure if that’s what you need. For IaaS, ServerCentral offers a hybrid platform and also acts as an AWS consultant.
The time they’ve spent in the market has enabled them to tightly integrate their range of products, making them one of the premium providers of infrastructure needs around. They also help customers migrate from traditional infrastructure onto IaaS.
11. Linode
Linode is yet another example of how an IaaS provider has chosen to focus on the web hosting industry. In concept it is almost identical to what Digital Ocean does, but Linode has decided to bring forward the user-friendliness aspect.
It was one of the first in the business to introduce a flat pricing model for their IaaS. The result was much greater transparency in Cloud fees, enabling businesses to plan with greater precision despite the potential elasticity of the product.
Linode comes packaged with an intuitive Cloud Manager, excellent API, and the documentation to support it all.
Visit Linode
12. Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud, affectionately known as Aliyun, is China’s answer to Cloud-dominating US companies. Established in Hangzhou, China, by the now globally known Jack Ma, the company has grown at unprecedented speeds. That’s stunning considering that it is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group.
It offers a wide range of Cloud services that includes IaaS but also services as well. Today, it’s reach has increased and Aliyun data centers serve 63 zones around the world. Because of the IaaS structure, services are of course based on the pay-as-you-go concept.
Aliyun has been lauded by Gartner as being ideal for medium to large sized businesses due to the combination of its agility and simplistic process.
13. Rackspace Open Cloud
Rackspace today is a Cloud services company that has multiple options in the IaaS space. Their model customizes business solutions to fit business needs and they have the necessary supporting services to ease transition towards Cloud adoption.
Their IaaS options include virtualized services (both HyperVisor and VMware), public Cloud deployments from AWS, Azure, Google, and OpenStack, private Cloud, and even bare-metal servers and hybrid Clouds.
One of the things that makes things easier for businesses joining them is their provision of a simplified control panel through which solutions can be managed. That, plus their supporting services, makes them an attractive option compared to the hardcore technical challenge when approching IaaS directly.
14. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is another of the big boys which provide virtually Everything as a Service. In fact, they take it to the next level and offer varying solutions even within each of those categories – such as in IaaS.
Their strength however, lies in helping customers build tightly integrated systems. This means that as long as it’s the right solution for your business, you can use HPE to power everything from on-premise systems to the Cloud.
Dubbed it’s ‘Composable Cloud strategy’, the company provides multiple elements which act as building blocks for whatever you need.
15. Green Cloud Technologies
Green Cloud Technologies offers a holistic Cloud approach that guides customers from end to end of the journey. Not just an IaaS provider, they also have comprehensive support, training and marketing solutions
All their solutions are fully customizable and have the usual benefit of IaaS scalability. This way, their solutions can be very highly targeted depending on your needs. It applies to everything they do including backup and storage solutions.
16. CenturyLink Cloud
CenturyLink’s IaaS is based on VMware and has the ability to keep up with applications that are as intensive and complicated as you need. It’s FedRAMP certified which allows it to serve many federal government agencies in specific computing areas.
They use a hybrid IT building block system for what they offer since that gives both them and their customers the maximum flexibility that the Cloud allows. For those who need help with any of their solutions, they also have Advanced Managed Services.
17. Hitachi Enterprise Cloud
The only entry on this list from Japan, Hitachi Enterprise Cloud supports both VMware as well as Cloud-native environments. Their solution looks towards a progression pathway that is faster and more flexible.
What’s left to the user is the choice of whether to pursue a private or hybrid cloud for their automation processes and application delivery. This preconfigured approach enables customers to save both time and money.
Final Thoughts
Because of the highly elastic nature of IaaS, it isn’t only suitable for large businesses. However, smaller businesses that are considering it as an option need to know that associated services such as management and consultancy, often come at a steep price.
Unless you’ve got the time and tech savvy to handle IaaS, it’s still something best left to the big boys. On the other hand, smaller, more focused solutions like Linode and Vultr may be a better possibility.
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FAQs
What is an example of infrastructure as a service IaaS? ›
IaaS (Infra as a Service)
Infrastructure as service or IaaS is the basic layer in cloud computing model. Common examples: DigitalOcean, Linode, Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE) are some popular examples of Iaas.
Examples of IaaS include Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE) and Joyent.
What is IaaS PaaS SaaS with examples? ›...
Common examples of PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS.
| Platform | Examples |
|---|---|
| SaaS | Gmail, Slack, and Microsoft Office 365 |
| IaaS | Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Engine |
A good example of IaaS is AWS EC2. EC2 delivers scalable infrastructure for companies that want to host cloud-based applications.
What comprises an infrastructure as a service IaaS model Mcq? ›Explanation: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is an acronym for Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Users of IaaS get computer resources such as software or hardware tools through the internet. In this model, the service vendor owns the equipment: servers, storage, network infrastructure, and so forth.
Which of the following is IaaS service provider? ›Answer: A) EC2 is the IaaS service provider.
What is IaaS example Azure? ›Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing service that offers essential compute, storage and networking resources on demand, on a pay-as-you-go basis. IaaS is one of the four types of cloud services, along with software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and serverless.
Which resource is an example of IaaS in Azure? ›Which resource is an example of IaaS? An Azure virtual machine is an example of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Azure web app, Azure logic app and Azure SQL database are all examples of Platform as a Service (Paas).
Is Skype example of SaaS? ›SaaS (Software as a Service): When the software is hosted and you pay for a subscription. “on-demand software” as well. Examples: Spotify, Gmail, Skype,…
What is example of PaaS? ›Popular examples of PaaS include: AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Windows Azure. Heroku.
What is SaaS PaaS IaaS DaaS? ›
Software as a service (SaaS) Platform as a service (PaaS) Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) Desktop as a service (DaaS)
What is PaaS and IaaS? ›IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): IaaS products allow organizations to manage their business resources — such as their network, servers, and data storage — on the cloud. PaaS (Platform as a Service): PaaS products allow businesses and developers to host, build, and deploy consumer-facing apps.
Which of the following is a classic example of an IaaS service model Mcq? ›Which of the following is a classic example of an IaaS service model? Explanation: AWS has several data centers in which servers run on top of a virtualization platform (Xen).
What are the main values of IaaS cloud deployment model Mcq? ›What are the main values of IaaS cloud deployment models?(more than one option are correct)1)Shifting risk to infrastructure as a service. 2)Exchange CAPEX to OPEX. 3)Buy more hardware than required. 4)Expect more initial investment.
Which of the following is an example of an IaaS Cloud Service * 1 point a DigitalOcean B linode C Rackspace D All of the above? ›Which of the following is an example of an IaaS Cloud service? Explanation : IaaS stands for Infrastructure-as-a-Service. In IaaS, the users receive computing resources like software or hardware tools virtually over the internet. DigitalOcean, Linode, Rackspace are the example of an IaaS service.
Which one of the following is a type of infrastructure as a service? ›AWS is one of the most successful cloud-based businesses, which is a type of infrastructure as a service and lets you rent virtual computers on its own infrastructure.
Which of the following is an example of the cloud? ›One such example is Google cloud – It is a suite of public cloud services offered by Google. All the application development run on Google hardware. They include Google Compute Engine, App engine, google cloud storage, Google container engine. SAAS (Software-as-a-Service)- Examples Microsoft Office Live, Dropbox.
Which of the following is SaaS characteristic? ›Which of the following is a SaaS characteristic? Explanation: There may be executable client-side code, but the user isn't responsible for maintaining that code or its interaction with the service.
What are the features of IaaS? ›- Automated administrative tasks.
- Dynamic scaling.
- Platform virtualization technology.
- GUI and API-based access.
- Internet connectivity.
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is a cloud-based, on-demand solution where a third-party vendor provides server management, data storage, and networking resource solutions to its clients.
Which are the factors that IaaS provides to its users? ›
- Data security.
- Identity & access management.
- Security information & event management.
- Security orchestration, automation & response.
- View all Security products.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon that includes a mixture of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and packaged software as a service (SaaS) offerings.
Is Microsoft a IaaS? ›Office 365 is SaaS, which provides an online version of MS Office Suite (Office Web Apps) along with SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Lync Server. Windows Azure is both IaaS and PaaS, which makes the Windows Server operating system and other features available as services.
Is Google Drive IaaS or PaaS? ›Even as a consumer — not just as a business professional — you're probably most familiar with SaaS (Software as a Service). This cloud computing model would be considered something like DropBox or Google Drive. In simple terms, SaaS eliminates the need to install and run software on individual computers.
Which three features are part of IaaS? ›Storage, backup, and recovery.
Are virtual machines IaaS or PaaS? ›1 Answer. Basically, VMs are IaaS i.e Infrastructure as a Service as because on a virtual machine you can able to manage what all operations are takes place also what software is installed in it. Whereas PaaS can helps you manage the software that is running in the cloud like app services.
What of the following is the best use case for IaaS? ›IaaS is a perfect environment to manage big data because it can handle large workloads and can integrate with business intelligence tools. This delivers business insights that can help users predict trends, improve relationships with customers, and create new products and services.
Is Yahoo a SaaS? ›If you have used a web-based email service such as Outlook, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, then you have already used a form of SaaS.
Is Facebook SaaS or PaaS? ›Facebook is an example of PaaS. Developers can create specific applications for the Facebook platform using proprietary APIs and make that application available to any Facebook user.
Is Microsoft a SaaS? ›Software as a service (SaaS) allows users to connect to and use cloud-based apps over the Internet. Common examples are email, calendaring, and office tools (such as Microsoft Office 365). SaaS provides a complete software solution that you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider.
Is Microsoft Azure PaaS or IaaS? ›
Azure offers five main PaaS service elements: Web apps, Mobile apps, Logic apps, Functions, and Web jobs.
Is Gmail example of PaaS? ›The easiest way to understand these as-a-service offerings is to start with SaaS, the most abstract layer and the one you may already be using today, even at a personal level. A simple example of SaaS is an online email service, like Gmail. If you use Gmail, you are not hosting your own email server.
What is PaaS software? ›Platform as a service. Platform as a service (PaaS) is a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable you to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications.
Is DaaS and IaaS the same? ›IaaS provides infrastructure such as servers. DaaS provides a virtual desktop environment. SaaS is ideal if you need a ready-to-use software and don't want to spend time on anything else. However, if you need more customization options you should consider IaaS, PaaS and DaaS.
Which of the following is not a cloud service * IaaS PaaS SaaS DaaS? ›question. (c) BaaS. When expanding the world of cloud computing are efficient with the cryptic acronyms. They include the 'Saas', 'PaaS', and 'IaaS' which becomes the most commonly used acronyms in cloud sector.
Is FaaS a PaaS? ›Function as a Service is even simpler than PaaS. As the name suggests, it's based on the functions which can be triggered by a given event, so it's an event-based architecture. The level of simplicity is so high that it's called a serverless architecture.
What type of cloud is SaaS? ›SaaS. SaaS is a service that delivers a software application—which the cloud service provider manages—to its users. Typically, SaaS apps are web applications or mobile apps that users can access via a web browser.
What are the 3 main types models in cloud computing? ›Well, there are 3 types of cloud computing: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
Is Zoom SaaS or PaaS? ›Zoom is a video communications company that affords its users video conferencing remotely using cloud-based computing. It is a Software as a Service (SaaS) that provides you with an easy and stress-free platform to hold online meetings, mobile collaboration as well as video conferencing.
Which of the following cloud solutions is an example of IaaS? ›Public cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are examples of IaaS.
Which one of the following is related to the services provided by cloud Mcq? ›
1 Answer. Explanation: Insourced or Outsourced means whether the service is provided by the customer or the service provider.
Which of the following is an example of a SaaS cloud service? ›Software as a Service (SaaS)
Using one of these applications, users can access, share, store and secure information in the cloud. SaaS cloud solutions examples include Dropbox, Slack and Microsoft 365.
Increase Security: IaaS providers invest heavily in security technology and expertise. Future-Proof: Access to state-of-the-art data center, hardware and operating systems. Self-Service Provisioning: Access via simple internet connection. Reallocate IT Resources: Free up IT staff for higher value projects.
What is a main advantage of using IaaS? ›One of the greatest benefits of IaaS is the ability to scale up and down quickly in response to an enterprise's requirements. IaaS providers generally have the latest, most powerful storage, servers and networking technology to accommodate the needs of their customers.
What is IaaS activity in cloud Mcq? ›IaaS, or infrastructure as a service, is on-demand access to cloud-hosted physical and virtual servers, storage and networking - the backend IT infrastructure for running applications and workloads in the cloud.
Is Rackspace cloud an example of PaaS? ›IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
Both Rackspace and Amazon AWS have Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings, which is one of three cloud computing service models alongside Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).
The correct answer to the question “Which of the following is not a type of cloud” is option (c). Protected. And all the other options denote a type of cloud, Private Cloud, Public Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud.
Is virtual machine IaaS or PaaS? ›We recently announced the release of Windows Azure Virtual Machines, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering in Windows Azure.
Is Google Drive IaaS or PaaS? ›Even as a consumer — not just as a business professional — you're probably most familiar with SaaS (Software as a Service). This cloud computing model would be considered something like DropBox or Google Drive. In simple terms, SaaS eliminates the need to install and run software on individual computers.
What are the characteristics of IaaS? ›- Automated administrative tasks.
- Dynamic scaling.
- Platform virtualization technology.
- GUI and API-based access.
- Internet connectivity.
Is Amazon IaaS or PaaS? ›
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon that includes a mixture of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and packaged software as a service (SaaS) offerings.
Is Skype example of SaaS? ›SaaS (Software as a Service): When the software is hosted and you pay for a subscription. “on-demand software” as well. Examples: Spotify, Gmail, Skype,…
What is IaaS in cloud computing? ›Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing service that offers essential compute, storage and networking resources on demand, on a pay-as-you-go basis. IaaS is one of the four types of cloud services, along with software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and serverless.
Is Microsoft 365 SaaS or PaaS? ›Microsoft 365, (formerly Office 365) on the other hand, is a Software as a Service (SaaS). It provides users access to office productivity apps for email, collaboration, communication, file storage, and more that they can either install on their desktops or access on a web browser.
Is Facebook a PaaS? ›Facebook is an example of PaaS. Developers can create specific applications for the Facebook platform using proprietary APIs and make that application available to any Facebook user.
Is Facebook a SaaS? ›Of course Facebook, Twitter, etc. are software-as-a-service, provided over the internet. But the definition / line for “SaaS” is applications whose business model is primarily a subscription fee for software. Similarly, ecommerce companies are generally not “SaaS”.
Is Yahoo a SaaS? ›Common SaaS scenarios
If you have used a web-based email service such as Outlook, Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail, then you have already used a form of SaaS. With these services, you log into your account over the Internet, often from a web browser.
Increase Security: IaaS providers invest heavily in security technology and expertise. Future-Proof: Access to state-of-the-art data center, hardware and operating systems. Self-Service Provisioning: Access via simple internet connection. Reallocate IT Resources: Free up IT staff for higher value projects.
Why do we need IaaS? ›IaaS provides all the infrastructure to support web apps, including storage, web and application servers, and networking resources. Your organization can quickly deploy web apps on IaaS and easily scale infrastructure up and down when demand for the apps is unpredictable.
Is IaaS software or hardware? ›In the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model, the subscriber leases just the hardware infrastructure (networking, data center space, storage, servers, and virtualization services), but establishes and maintains all other components of the technology stack (applications, data, runtime, middleware, operating systems, ...
What are the 4 types of cloud computing? ›
There are four main types of cloud computing: private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, and multiclouds. There are also three main types of cloud computing services: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Is Microsoft Azure PaaS or IaaS? ›Azure offers five main PaaS service elements: Web apps, Mobile apps, Logic apps, Functions, and Web jobs.
How do I make IaaS? ›- creation of all required resources (Resource Group, Storage account, Cloud Services).
- configuration of a Virtual Network (VNET) with multiple subnet.
- configuration of VPN Gateway (Point-to-site VPN) for client connection and certificate configuration.
- use of Azure PowerShell.