Confused about cloud computing
I've read about three types of cloud computing services:
- IaaS.
- PaaS.
- SaaS.
I've read about these all in many books. But I'm confused about their applications and examples.
What do they mean and how do they work?
Please give some daily life examples of these services. Well I'm a novice in this respect.
Solution 1:
IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service
This is a cloud architechure where you create virtual servers, virtual network devices, etc, using existing OS software like windows or Linux. Azure and AWS both have IaaS offerings. You can create a replica of your existing server room up in the cloud with IaaS, so it gives you the most control and the most responsibility.
PaaS - Platform as a Service
This one is a little more abstract, but the provider provides to you the means to build your application (databases, web interfaces and services, batches/jobs, and whatnot) on THEIR server infrastructure using their applications. Salesforce Force.com or Azure DBaaS are examples of a PaaS. for instance with DBaaS, you put your database on their server, with appropriate configuration. PaaS is very proprietary, and specific to the provider. In Salesforce, you use their software every step of the way to create your data structures, views, and interactions. In general you have only the control they provided, and the divide between your and their responsibilities are clearly drawn.
SaaS - Software as a Service
SaaS is the most easilly defined for most people. MS Office was traditionally desktop software, but eventually got moved to the cloud with Office 365. Now organizations subscribe to Office 365 to consume office applications provided by the MS service. MS provides all the servers and other infrastructure, and also the software that the user will access. In these scenarios, you have no control over the solution, beyond selecting the product. from there, all control and responsibility are in the hands of the provider.