IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

"Something" as a Service

• The idea is that you don't own that thing

• Someone lese owns it and you benefit from it - "as a service"

• You're not in control of how it's delivered (for the most part)

• Pay as you go; no upfront costs

Example: Cooking at home --> Cooking as a Service (Restaurant) Driving your own car --> Driving as a Service (Taxi)

Software as a Service (SaaS)

• You don't control the servers (or even know what they are)

• You don't control the software (or even know what version number is running)

• You control the data and settings only

It stands alone as a useful product; does not require something else to be useful

Example: Microsoft Office 365 - SaaS Sharepoint, Outlook, Word, Excel, etc...

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• You don't control the servers (but you might be able to pay more for performance)

• You control the data and settings

• Often it's programmable and you can upload your own code

• Provides useful features above the raw storage or compute underneath

It's a platform that you need to build upon to be useful

Example: App Service - PaaS Azure SQL Database - PaaS

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• You do control the VM

• It's a virtual imitation of a real piece of a network

• Falls into 3 categories:

  • Compute

  • Networking

  • Storage

Completely "dumb" unless you control it

Example: Virtual Machines - IaaS Azure Storage - IaaS Load Balancer - IaaS

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