Negosentro | Different Service Paradigms Define the Cloud Experience For Businesses | Many people get a little confused when they hear for the first time that the cloud is just another name for the internet. Then “why the cloud moniker?” they wonder. The term comes from old networking diagrams—the symbol used for the point where the LAN or WAN connection to the internet was a cloud.
The rise in the last few years of cloud computing has to do with how developers have created uses for the internet to provide specific types of services to their customers. By delivering computer-related services to users through the internet, cloud providers give businesses a way to invest more capital into operating costs instead of equipment costs. This scalable flexibility enables them to stay competitive in any economic climate.
While the subdivisions and acronyms denoting different service models already seem almost endless and helpful hybrid cloud management software, there are three fundamental aspects of cloud computing that all other categories fall underneath: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
In the old days, you had to install computer programs from floppy disks and buy updates from the company. Slowly, the process evolved into today’s preferred method known as software as a service or SaaS.
In this cloud computing service model, the software company rents the program to the user monthly. The user’s subscription covers updates and usually free training materials. SaaS greatly simplifies the licensing of multiple users on a single site location or working remotely. The subscription owner can typically add or remove users as outlined in their agreement. Updates are automatic and entirely seamless as the software provider initiates them.
SaaS dramatically reduces the time business owners, or their IT staff, spend deploying and managing software assets. It also ensures that users have the latest version of the software available at all times and can easily keep abreast of its newest features and how they can help them work more efficiently.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service, or PaaS, is commonly used by software developers writing code. PaaS acts as a development platform to create, test, and refine computer code for any applications they are writing. When using PaaS, software developers have the convenience and speed of testing code in a predetermined environment. As a result, they don’t have to waste excessive time setting up development space, compiling code, and then testing their code in real-world situations.
With PaaS, they write their code and immediately execute it. The ability to see the results in real-time dramatically increases the speed of new product development. If you can score enough hits quickly, you significantly improve your odds of success in the software industry. In addition, PaaS can give internal developers a quick route to getting in-house applications up and running more quickly and typically with fewer problems.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Replacing the physical network with a virtual one is the basis for the infrastructure as service, or IaaS, cloud computing model. IaaS handles routine network services like file, device and resource sharing by moving the server to the cloud. But it doesn’t exist. Instead, it is a logical entity, defined by software only and housed in vast computer warehouse facilities.
IaaS gives businesses the ability to scale the network services they need throughout the year or as their business grows or contracts. As a result, companies only have to spend for what network capacity they need at a given time instead of paying a full-time IT staff to monitor and maintain physical in-house servers.
Subscribers to IaaS also have the peace of mind of knowing that trained cybersecurity professionals with adequate resources and knowledge are handling network security. With the growing threat of cybercrime, that thought should help many business owners sleep better at night.
Conclusion
If you intend on getting what your business needs from the cloud, it will require due diligence and patience. Don’t go with the first company to promise you the world. You will probably end up with a mixture of ideas that you will ultimately have to cobble into a workable solution. The transition to the cloud is often challenging, but the possible rewards make it worth the effort.
