When Does a Manager Prefer IaaS over PaaS and SaaS?
Content
Each of the XaaS variants mentioned in the heading has its advantages, its applications but it is necessary to discern which situation it is appropriate for. At first, let´s look at what the aaS abbreviations actually mean.
… as a Service
In a Nutshell
Providing IT products thanks to cloud in the form of a service
How Does It Work?
Rent a space for playing tennis instead of building it yourself.
In a Nutshell
IT product in this case is the infrastructure as a whole.
How Does It Work?
You rent an area, poles, cords and nets you place in the area as you wish.
In a Nutshell
IT product is in this case is the infrastructure with a set-up operating system.
How Does It Work?
Rent an area with a set-up net.
In a Nutshell
IT product is the whole application.
How Does It Work?
Rental of a fully equipped court including the raquettes, balls and snacks.
It will probabyl seem that SaaS is a comfortable way how to make everything up and running. You just come and play. but in many scenarious you encounter the problem that comfortability is the opposite of efficiency and the costs are on the rise.
And when you rent the whole court, what might happen to you is that if by any chance you would like to play badminton instead of tennis, you don’t have the option to adjust the height of the net to fit your current needs.
So you are left with the IaaS option which gives you the freedom to prepare everything in the way you need it. Let’s look now when IaaS is the right choice at hand.
Company Physical Infrastructure
If a company operates its own servers, there are good reasons for it. One of the most common ones include:
- Fears from cloud
- Need to adhere to specific regulations and rules
- Server efficiency bias
Physical machines. their equipment and elements are quite instable when it comes to IT operations. Outside of high investment costs, we are also talking about costs related to maintenace, repairs and problem solving. And when a few years run by, there comes the need to update everything, exchange it, procure it and migrate it.
If a company decides to use IaaS and it has owned and operated its physical servers, the IT infrastructure will still be provide in the manner th company was used to, but all will happen through a secured online interface. There will be no m,ore need to take care of any physical element and your IT guys can get back to fully devote their attention to the operation of company systems.
Besidec, IaaS runs in a data center that is specialized on operating physcial infrastgructure, so everything is under constant oversight and the IT team makes sure that maintenance and problems are not felt by the customer. More information on how Iaas – virtual data center – very successfuly substitutes physical infrastructure, can be found in our article that focuses on the right company cloud environment.
Several Virtual Private Servers
When virtual servers hit the market, many companies immediately switched from the physical IT world to the virtual one. But time shows that virtual servers have many limits and one of them is related to situation when you manage more than one virtual server.
If we would like to use the words from the table, virtual servers, that are mostly used, are classified as a PaaS. They still give you a certain degree of freedom but only some. A virtual server is configured and deployed in a certain size and with a specific system. When your circumstances change, it does not adapt to the situation. So if you rented a tennis court and you would like to play badminton, you are out of luck and you need another court which will be ready for badminton.
A big advantage of IaaS in this case is that virtual servers can be easily deployed and erased based on the need but you still use a specific set of computing resources. If we use the court analogy again, then IaaS gives you the resources necessary. You then build the environment. In our scenario, you get the area, poles, cords and a net. And you set up a tennis court now and a badminton one the next time. No need for additional purchases.
IaaS provides you with the resources in the form of processors, RAM and storage. You select how much of each you need and your IT guys then manipulate iwht these resources based on the current needs of the company. They have everything under control and also under one roof where even you can check on the usage and if maybe there is a need to adjust the operations to increase efficiency.
IaaS also doesn’t see a problem in setting up two courts next to each other that also enable migration from one to the other, invite players or maybe use one fot he public and the other not. All of these setting are yours to control and it is up to you how you will manage the environment.
Running a Dynamic E-Shop
If you run an e-shop that lives thorugh ups and downs, for example when the season comes, you surely have experience with the fact that everything at that point depends on whether or not the systems can withstand the pressure the shop is facing during these demand tsunamis. And you also have to pay for it.
You have probably encountered your costs increasing significantly when you prpare for such a period. And these costs do not match your needs timewise, you are charged for them for a much longer period because you need to order them in advance and in accordance with the terms and conditions.
IaaS has a huge advantage that shows in adaptability and flexibility. As we said, you manage the computing resources the way you need and if you are expecting any deviation, you simple order more resources and they will await you until you need them. You increase the power of the machines to cover the visitors and as soon as everything returns back to normal, you return back to normal even the IT infrastructure. The costs precisely copy your needs and you always pay only for what you really need.
Besides, you can also use a system that covers these waves automatically, so your infrastructure is built in a way to not experience overload or outages.
Developing Software
If we would like to draw the approach to developing software, we would probably end up with a line that somwhow resembles a sine wave. We start at zero, then we need resources for development and when we are going to test and deploy, the demands increase significantly. But only for a moment, until the testing is over. And then repeat.
PaaS can of course be used and you encounter tghis quite often – development companies using virtual servers from global providers. But IaaS in in meeting the developer needs much better.
IaaS enables developers to work with a specific pool of resources that are actviated or deactivated based on the development life cycle. And certain data streams are let into the Internet while others are not. This ensures the functionality an scope that precisely match the needs of developers. This leads us to another group that truly benefits from IaaS.
SaaS Providers
Some software developers specialize in products that are later provided as a Service. In such cases, IaaS is a great helper because SaaS providers do not need to overinflate the infrastructure based on an estimate when the software is actually provided.
IaaS provides freedom in the sense of how many customers are in the beginning, how fast do the requirements grow and how many of them come within a certain period. IaaS in the form of a virtual data center is configured based on the need at that time and simply increases the resources based on the changes that happen – a customer comes, needs are rising, the software is being used more and more – none of that is a problem because the whole platfrom is built in a way to enable technicians to influence the amoung if resources with minimum delay.
IT Outsourcing
From an experience with our customer we know that outsourcing providers that take care of customers’ virtual infrastructure, benefit from using IaaS virtual data center in several areas. You can read our case study here.
Tech Start-ups
Technology start-ups that focus on development in various areas of information technologies, smart technologies and advanced technologies in the style of AI, need to have a reliable infratructure that will not cost them an arm and a leg but will precisely cover their need and will grow with them.
IaaS has a great advantage in forcing nobody to invest – everything is included in a monthly payment. Start-ups can also benefit from saving their limited budget from payments that are not due because they will just have the resources they require.
IaaS or PaaS or SaaS?
Your company like any other is unique and it cannot be universally said if it will benefit from either type of XaaS mentioned. We have providedyou with several categories in which we know IaaS can truly be the best solution even though it may seem that working with it is just unnecessary complication. IaaS is fully adapted to your needs – a huge value added.
There have been many times we have encountered the term virtual data center in the text. In many regards, it can truly save your IT life.
