What Is A Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)?

In this digital era, businesses are getting more inclined to implement cloud IaaS because of its cost-effectiveness and flexibility. This platform allows modern businesses to move away from internal IT Infrastructure. It is mainly responsible for hosting infrastructure on private and public clouds instead of the conventional on-premise data center.  

It has gained immense popularity as a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources through the internet. It is mainly related to serverless computing. Here, we will provide you with a complete guide on Infrastructure as a Service to make you understand how this computing service benefits your organization to sustain your business growth. 

What Is Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)?

Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS is one of the forms of cloud computing services that almost cover most of the requirements of any organization’s IT. This is very beneficial specifically because it offers valuable resources to the customers on a subscription basis. 

The fundamentals include network management, computation, and storage requirements, provided via on-demand digital-based services. It allows the users to scale up and down the resources so that it can provide services to organizations of different sizes that need it. 

Earlier, before the foundation of the IaaS cloud computing software, most companies had no idea about handling their own IT infrastructure services. The entire process was quite wasteful and expensive. 

On the contrary, IaaS reduces the cost spent on physical servers. They now pay only for the services they want to grow their business which becomes the reason behind the growth of IaaS solutions. As per the statistics, the global market value of the IaaS is expected to reach $481.8 billion by the year 2030. 

Service Models of the Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)

Customers can deploy three different kinds of Infrastructure as a service model. Every cloud is being produced by using a compilation of different technologies like application programming interfaces, operating systems, and some types of management platforms. 

However, virtualization and automation software can be included in each type of cloud for increased efficiency and additional capacity. Let’s briefly discuss the service models of the Infrastructure as a Service below.

1. Private Clouds

Private clouds are referred to as cloud environments dedicated to one user or one group, where the environment typically runs behind the firewall of that particular user or group. Private clouds do not need to be sourced from the on-premise IT infrastructure. Nowadays, businesses are developing private clouds on vendor-owned and rented data center situations off-premises, making any ownership rules obsolete. It has led to several private cloud subtypes like dedicated and managed private clouds.

2. Public Clouds

The public cloud is a cloud environment that consists of IT infrastructure that does not share ownership with the end user. The largest and most popular examples of public clouds are Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, Amazon Web Services, etc. 

As per Statista, the market size of public cloud services is expected to reach 21.3%. This cloud is also well-known as a multi-tenant because it is provisioned for several organizations. A business or any organization can get ownership and operate the physical infrastructure. 

3. Hybrid Clouds

Hybrid clouds are mainly a single IT infrastructure comprising several environments connected via WANs, LANs, APIs, and VPNs. Hybrid clouds have come up with very complicated characteristics, and requirements can vary based on whom you ask. 

For instance, it may include a single private or public cloud, more hybrid clouds, more than two private clouds, etc. So, here the two different clouds hold their different entities but are bound together by proprietary technologies. 

How to Implement Infrastructure As A Service?

Before implementing the IaaS into a system, it is crucial to understand the reasons to have it for your business. However, there are two ways to implement infrastructure as a Service into your system. 

The first way is the hosted way, where an organization or a company creates a new account with the third-party providers of IaaS. But, before opting for a provider, you must look at your servers, storage, and network requirements. It is a very crucial step since an umpteenth number of providers offer different levels of capabilities. So, once you open an account with them, you need to spot the pieces of your existing infrastructure that best fit to migrate to the new host. 

Another way is there where you must develop on-premise IaaS architecture with your pre-existing system. For this, you can opt for any IaaS technology platform to implement. Once the installation is done, the same migration process as the hosted way should occur. 

IaaS Architecture

Infrastructure as a Service contains storage, network, virtualization layer, and server. A good network is much needed to communicate between storage, compute components, virtualization, and other service layers. 

Network

The network is another important component of the IaaS architecture. It primarily contains sources such as a router, bridge, switches, and gateway. It is virtualized before accessing the cloud customers. 

Compute

The compute layer primarily contains three things: Graphical Processing Unit or GPU, Central Processing Unit or CPU, and high-performance units. The graphical Processing Unit is there to run applications and process all web requests. The role of the Central Processing Unit is to manage heavy workloads such as embedded systems and training algorithms. Lastly, the high-performance unit is there to make all the complicated calculations for engineering and science workloads. 

Storage

Another important thing here is affordable cloud storage. It can store unstructured data such as blobs, documents, images, and binary data. The File storage here manages and stores all the data in a very organized structure. On the other hand, block storage divides data into blocks, enabling it to spread on different platforms. 

Virtualization

Virtualization of all the physical resources can be done using a hypervisor before cloud customers’ access. For added security, the customer can access the infrastructure from anywhere by using an internet connection or VPN. 

What Does IaaS Have In Common With DevOps?

DevOps is a way of working at the intersection of operations and development. It mainly focuses on reducing the time spent on developing and improving the software so that the user can easily access the new application faster. According to a survey, 15% of experts said they had seen notable success after deploying this architecture. During DevOps development, the operational and development teams need to communicate more often, and they have to collaborate like a teammate. 

DevOps mainly use dynamic and frequent code changes, which makes this an ideal fit for the Infrastructure as a service. The main focus of DevOps is to standardize the environment and automate operational and daily tasks throughout a lifecycle of an app. DevOps team will develop the software with the help of the microservices architecture and then connect these services with the APIs. 

These things eventually help the teammates deliver the software quickly by concentrating on developing tiny pieces of functionality, using techniques like agile methods to bring it together. IaaS can help DevOps by eradicating the need to manage server infrastructure. 

What’s the Difference Between IaaS and Serverless?

Serverless computing refers to a cloud-native development model where servers are removed from app development and primarily relate to the Infrastructure as a Service. Serverless mainly depends on a cloud provider to handle app scaling and infrastructure. When it comes to IaaS, it becomes the primary responsibility of the user to level up the capability of the server during the period of high demand and scale back when there is no need for capacity. 

But on the contrary, the application launching will be done only when it is needed with the serverless architecture. When an event provokes an application to run, the allocation of the resources of the code is dynamically done by the public cloud provider. The user does not have to pay a single penny after executing the code. The routine activities in the serverless, like scaling, file system management, load balancing, operating system, security patches, monitoring, etc., can all be shifted to the cloud service providers. 

Common IaaS Business Scenarios

a) Lift-and-Shift Migration

This is considered the most affordable and fastest way of migrating workload to the cloud. You can boost the performance and scale, improve the security, and minimizes the costs of running application without refactoring the underlying architecture. 

b) Storage, Backup, and Recovery

Your company ignores the capital expenditures for storage and the complexity of managing stores. It needs professional staff to handle data and meet legal and compliance needs. IaaS can be very beneficial in managing unpredictable demand and ever-increasing storage demands. It helps in simplifying the process of backup and recovery systems.

c) Testing and Development

Your team can easily set up and tear down tests and development to market your products faster. IaaS makes the whole process faster and more cost-effective.

d) High-performance Compute

High-performance computing can easily resolve every complicated problem which involves complex calculations. For instance, financial modeling, climate and weather prediction, product design evaluation, etc.

e) Web Applications

IaaS allows your company to give support to every web app, including networking resources, web servers, storage, etc. You can easily implement web apps on the IaaS to measure infrastructure up and down when one can not predict the demand of the apps.

Benefits of an IaaS

The primary perks of the IaaS are elasticity, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility. You need to pay for the services you want. Also, you can access the cloud from anywhere at any time. Hence, businesses are opting for IaaS to boost their business performance. As per the statistics, the global growth rate of the IaaS is expected to grow by 30.5% by the year 2023. the below-mentioned pointers describe the advantages of using IaaS. 

1. Cost-effective

IaaS is considered one of the most cost-effective solutions for end users. Customers only have to pay for the services they will choose. There is no need to pay extra for the setup cost. It comes up with pay-as-you-go subscription models that drastically reduce maintenance and hardware costs.

2. Scalability

Cloud service providers offer scalability without partial abilities by pooling the computer power of the cloud servers. The hypervisor services can help you in increasing computing resources. With IaaS, you do not have to update your hardware and software to resolve equipment problems. 

3. Easy Deployment

The public cloud of the IaaS primarily uses a huge number of pooled cloud servers in the data center. It offers the service across the internet so that customers can sign up easily from anywhere. 

4. Boosts Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

To gain business continuity, high availability, and disaster recovery, you must pay a lump sum for staff and technology. Still, with the help of the right SLA, IaaS can cut down the cost to a great extent. Additionally, an individual can easily gain access to the data and application of the cloud during an outage.

5. Reliability

An IaaS service provider can guarantee better security than any other computing service. It also offers protection against a single point of failure. Unfortunately, if a server goes down, it won’t disrupt the services since other servers provide redundancy. 

Consideration When Using an IaaS

1. Regulations

Some industries, like finance and healthcare, have strict rules regarding storing and managing customer data. Therefore, they do not allow to store their valuable data in the cloud for security purposes. Organizations must also consider data protection and privacy laws where their services are used. 

2. Loss of Data

It is rare that cloud services have lost their stored data permanently due to bugs and other technical issues. So, you must know what backup services your IaaS provider offers and whether they charge anything. Though, you can do the backup process all by yourself.

3. Security

Despite offering the best cloud services, all providers are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Therefore, it is crucial to learn how providers generally protect data stored in the cloud beforehand to avoid any problems in the future. 

4. Data Persistence 

Your service provider can access your data for several purposes, such as having insight into the business and training machine learning algorithms. So, you must check what policies they follow for using and deleting data.

5. Loss of User Visibility and Control

Users can’t fully control their infrastructure, especially when using third-party computing resources. Though, you can eradicate some risks by incorporating analytics tools to measure the performance of the infrastructure. 

6. Vendor Lock-in

Vendor lock-in is one of the major risks for cloud service users. Moving from one service provider to another is easier when using an open-source cloud solution. 

Challenges of IaaS

If your organization is new to this technology, then your company might encounter a learning curve and transition costs. The pricing structure of IaaS is problematic and hard to manage. Despite offering pay-as-you-go services, the IaaS billing can put you in trouble. 

Since the service providers have ownership of the infrastructures, the specifics of infrastructure configuration and functionality are unclear to the customer. So, it can lead to a lack of transparency, affecting everyone. Additionally, using the third-party IaaS solution may be simpler, but the real challenge comes down to learning the usage of a third-party’s APIs platform.

Top IaaS Providers

People generally know some of the popular IaaS providers regarding market share. But here, we will discuss five IaaS providers below. However, as per a survey by Synergy Research Group, $44 billion was spent on the PaaS and IaaS during the first quarter of 2022. 

AWS

Amazon Web Services was first introduced in 2006 and was the first commercial IaaS cloud on the market. From its foundation day, it was envisioned as a ‘have it your way’ platform where the developers can develop applications using the database of their choice. 

Microsoft Azure

Azure was initially established as the Microsoft.NET PaaS and held the second position in market share. As Microsoft already has a huge customer base, it was not difficult for Microsoft Azure to establish itself in the market share. 

Google Cloud Platform

As the leader in the search, Google has the world’s largest cloud-based infrastructure. Therefore, they naturally expanded their huge data center resources to provide IaaS to customers. There is no doubt that Google offers the most advanced cloud technology. Also, it offers a higher learning curve along with fewer third-party services.

Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba is also a famous e-commerce marketplace that offers IaaS services. It develops its cloud-based technology and provides a high-performance database. The growth of the market share has largely been localized to East Asia, constrained by the Great Firewall of China.

IBM Cloud

When IBM acquired IaaS provider SoftLayer, it looked like Big Blue was poised to become one of the top IaaS providers in the market. IBM introduced the popular Bluemix PaaS during that time, but it did not work well in the IaaS market share. Then, in 2018, it came up with hybrid cloud solutions, boosted by the acquisition of Red Hat.

Things to Take into Account When Selecting an IaaS Provider

Since every business is looking forward to virtualizing computer services, you must be mindful while choosing the IaaS provider you will be working with. As per the statistics, it is seen that almost 94% of enterprises are now using cloud computing services. 

Hence, an umpteenth number of cloud computing IaaS providers are available on the market. So, to help you make the selection process easier, we have compiled some pointers you must go through before hiring the right one for your business.

1. Security

Security is the top-most concern when choosing the IaaS service providers for your business. You must evaluate if the provider complies with data processing laws and regulations. It is crucial to choose a cloud that can secure access to data via multiple features like encryption and identity and access management. It is needed to ensure that your CSP is well-protected to help you combat any cyberattacks and security threats.

2. Cost-efficiency

There is no denying that every organization wishes to save money wherever possible. So, if you can go for the public cloud solution, which will offer you the best services at a very affordable price. Since IaaS is a cost-effective option, you can surely find some IaaS service providers where you have to pay for your services.

3. Functionality

You must ensure that your service provider offers you basic compute and storage support, including support of the three cloud delivery models (Private, Public, and Hybrid). So, you must select a provider who will offer you great functionality.

4. Reliability

Reliability is one of the major advantages of the IaaS platform. This is so because the network will spread on multiple servers and often across multiple physical locations. So, you must opt for a service provider offering you the best uptime and redundancy in performance. It eliminates the possibility of service disruption between your business and your clients. 

5. Usability

Usability is one of the essential features for both users and administrators. You have to ensure that your service providers have worked with products that are compatible with the latest and most advanced technology. They should provide you with an intuitive IaaS user interface to simplify the user’s interaction process with your product. 

Conclusion

A specific kind of cloud system known as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provides basic computation, storage, and application programs on request and on a pay-as-you-go basis. You may avoid the expense and difficulty of purchasing and operating existing systems and data center equipment by using IaaS. You only spend for a specific resource as soon as you use it since each asset is provided as a specific service component. IaaS solutions provide you the freedom to adjust the number of IT assets you have according to demand. Additionally, they improve the dependability of your underlying software while assisting you in swiftly provisioning new applications.

IaaS represents one of the four categories of cloud computing: serverless, platforms as a service, and software as a service (SaaS). While you buy, install, operate, and maintain your technology, including computer systems, middleware, and apps, a cloud computing service operator like Azure controls the technology. You may minimize the management of on-premises data centers, save hardware expenses, and obtain real-time business analytics by moving your agency’s network to an IaaS service.

Frequently Asked Questions