Cloud Computing Platforms

Cloud computing platforms are divided into 3 categories:-

·         Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): In infrastructure as a service, users can access    virtual servers using the service provider’s API to start, stop and configure the server

·         Platform as a Service (PaaS): Several software developers create applications using development tools hosted on the cloud.

·         Software as a Services(SaaS): Several users can access and use a single application or service that is hosted in the cloud

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

·   IaaS delivers computing infrastructure as a service. Instead of purchasing hardware and other infrastructure components, customers use some form of virtualization to access outsourced resources. Because consumption is on and demand basis, costs directly reflect the amount of use.

Characteristics of IaaS.

·         Resources are distributed as a service

·         Allows for dynamic scaling

·         Has a variable cost, utility pricing model

·         Generally includes multiple users on a single piece of hardware

Software as a Service (SaaS

• By delivering applications as a service, SaaS offers customers pre-packaged/prebuilt applications through a standard web browser. With SaaS, customers can avoid the installation and management of software on their own computers and further benefit from centralized, automatic software updates as well as lower costs.
• Customers don’t need to dedicate valuable resources to software deployment or management
• One way to think about these applications in the on-premises platform is to
• Divide them into two broad categories:
• First, there’s no software to purchase, install, update or maintain, which is handled by the service providers.
•  As well: You can sign up and rapidly start using cloud application and data are accessible from any connected computer No data is lost if your computer breaks, as data is in the cloud The service is able to dynamically scale to the usage needs of your organization.
•  One way to think about these applications in the on-premises platform is to divide them into two broad categories:
• packed applications
• Custom applications