Many have heard such abbreviations as Saas, Paas and Iaas, but not everyone understands what their features and differences are. This is what we will talk about in this article in more detail.
When we talk about software as a service or SaaS, we are talking about software as a service, which means that we have a software application hosted in the cloud that we can work with from any device.
When we talk about platform as a service or PaaS, we mean platform as a service. This means that we will have a tool in the cloud to create software applications.
Finally, infrastructure as a service or IaaS. This is virtually all equipment hosted in the cloud: servers, storage, networks, etc.
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What is Infrastructure as a Service?
As we have already pointed out, IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service is virtualized hardware. These will be all the physical resources that we will be accessed through a cloud service company such as Google Cloud Platform. With this hardware in the cloud, we can build as powerful infrastructure as we need, but without much investment in the same hardware or maintenance.
Core Functions of Infrastructure as a Service
We’ve already seen a bit of what IaaS consists of, now let’s see what their most important applications are:
As we already mentioned, IaaS is a hardware cloud service. This way we will only pay what we need, on demand.
As we noted, being hosted in the cloud, this is a scalable infrastructure that can vary depending on storage and processing needs.
This means significant cost savings as they do not have to purchase and maintain equipment at their facilities.
We can also perform some administrative tasks virtually, which will allow us to devote time to other more productive tasks.
What is PaaS?
As we mentioned earlier, PaaS is Platform as a Service. It is a tool in the cloud with which we can develop applications, manage them and support said applications. In other words, we will be able not only to support existing applications but also to design and develop new applications thanks to the entire infrastructure that the platform offers us.
Key features of PaaS
As we have already said, PaaS offers us a platform with tools for testing, developing, and hosting applications in the same environment.
Thanks to PaaS, we as a company can focus on developing the application and forget about the basic structural part.
Platform as a Service also manages security, operating system, backups, and more.
It’s a great cloud collaboration tool.
What is SaaS?
Finally, we have SaaS, software as a service. It is simply the ability to access certain software through the service provider’s cloud computing. That is, we will not install said software on our computer locally. This cloud service allows us to access software hosted on a cloud server, either through an API or through a website.
Key SaaS Features
SaaS applications have some common characteristics for all of them, namely:
Instead of being purchased and installed locally, SaaS software works (usually) on a subscription basis.
Since it is a cloud service, the SaaS user will never have to worry about updating or installing software as this is covered by the provider.
The software data resides in the cloud in complete safety, regardless of any failures you may see on our hardware.
Like IaaS and PaaS, we can scale resources to suit our needs. This is one of the main benefits of moving any software or tool to the cloud.
Differences between SaaS, PaaS and IaaS
The main characteristics that distinguish these three services are the levels of security and their purpose. If we enter into an IaaS contract, we will be responsible for the security of installed platforms and software, as well as databases, latency, updates, etc.
If we talk about the platform as a service, the only thing we have to worry about is the applications installed on this platform. We will have to deal with the problems that the application can cause.
Finally, software as a service, as we have just seen, will allow us to forget about updates, security, maintenance, etc.
All this will depend on what service we need to cover what we need.