Myles Brown | Thursday, May 16, 2019
The types of cloud computing servicesvary but using the cloud has become the “gold” standard for enterprises to access IT infrastructure, hardware, and software resources.It offers a big shift to the way businesses think about IT resources.Cloud computingis all about the delivery of computing services like databases, software, analytics, servers, storage, networking,andintelligence. There are many benefits of cloud computing including cost savings, scalability, and access to data centers around the world. Formanyenterprisesthe cloud offersflexibleresources, economies of scale, andfaster innovation.According to Gartner, the cloud services market is anticipated to grow by 17.33% in 2019 reaching $206.2 billion compared to $175.8 billion in 2018.Consider a cloud computing solution for your organization and learn more about the major services below.
Cloud Computing Services:
1 Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS)2 Platform as a Service(PaaS)
3 Software as a Service(SaaS)4 Functions as a Service(FaaS)
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing services and technologies have transformed how organizations procure and manage infrastructure. ExitCertified has partnered with all of the major players in public cloud training, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM, and Oracle. We also support private and hybrid cloud training on tools and frameworks like VMware, Cloud Foundry, OpenShift, and OpenStack.
Cloud technologies have transformed how organizations procure and manage infrastructure and platforms.The massive economies of scale that public cloud providers achieve enable you to scale, nearly without limits and eliminate the cost of idle equipment so you can provision resources only when needed. By gaining instant access to cloud provider data centers around the world, you’ll have the flexibility to store data where you need it.
The Top Cloud Computing Services
Cloud Computing services are changing the way information technologyis being used by publicinstitutionsand private organizations. Today, there areavariety of cloud computing services to fulfil almost any IT requirement.Organizationstypically payonly for the cloud service they use, helping them reduce operating costs and run infrastructure more efficiently.
With every organization today entering the cloud world, it is essential to understand the different types of services cloud computing offers. Althoughthere aremanytypes of cloud computing services, all these services have a few basic features andadvantagesin commonand can be categorized intofour basic cloud serviceofferings. Organizations can fly their business, small or big, to the cloud with these four different types of cloud computing services
1. Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS)
The lower end of managed cloud computing serviceswhere hardware resources areprovidedby an external provider and managed for you. IaaS provides users access to computing resources such as networking, processing poweranddata storage capacity.
IaaS helps users to use computing power or virtual machines withoutlabor-intensivehardware investments or servermanagement. Physically, the hardware resources are pulled from a variety ofnetworksand servers distributed across different datacenters, all ofwhichare managed and maintained by the cloud service provider.
For example, say a user wants a Linux system, with IaaS he will get access to it without having to worry aboutthenetworking of the machine on which Linux is installed or the physical system.
IaaS is beneficial for customers who want to create cost-effective andhighlyscalable IT solutions where the expenses andcomplexitiesinvolved in managing hardware resources are outsourced to a service provider.Most of the IaaS packages include servers, networking, storage, and virtualization components while the users are responsible for installing and maintaining databases, OS, applications, and security components.
Examples of IaaS Cloud Computing Services:
Amazon EC2, Windows Azure,Rackspace, Google Compute Engine.
Features and Benefits of IaaSCloud Computing Service
- A typical infrastructure as a service offering saves both time and money as the underlying hardware set up and support is provided by the service provider.
- Resources are available on demand as and when required so there is no wastage of any unused resources and no delays on adding any resources.
- Utility-based pricing model i.e. pay only for the resources youactually use.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
This cloud computing service is an advanced version of IaaS. Apart from just providing the IT infrastructure, PaaS also providesthecomputing platform and solution stack as a service. PaaS isacloud computing service that provides developers with a framework that can be used for building custom applications.Platform as a Service lets software developers build custom applications online without having to worry about data storage, data serving, and management.
A typical Platform as a Service offering consists of –
- Hosting Solutions
- OS
- Software tools for design and development.
- Environment for server-side scripting
- DBMS
- Network Access
- Storage
- Server Software
- Support
Examples of PaaS Cloud Computing Services:
Microsoft Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Force.com. by Salesforce, Google App Engine,RackspaceCloud Sites, OpenShift, and Apache Stratos
Features and Benefits of PaaSCloud Computing Service
- PaaS makes software development easy even for non-experts as anybody can develop an application through the web browser with just a single click functionality.
- There is no need for the users to upgrade or update the infrastructure as the PaaS service provider handlesall the update patches, upgrades, and regular software maintenance.
- PaaS provides location independenceas developers in different locations can work together on the same application build.
- There is no need to invest in physical infrastructure or in expertise required to manage it, an example of this would be SAP. The ability to rent virtual IT infrastructure brings in great cost benefits for the users.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS)
A special cloud computing service that incorporatesboth IaaS and PaaS service offerings. SaaS is a cloud computing service that providesapplication-level services tailored to diverse business needs such as business analytics, CRM, or marketing automation. SaaS is a cloud computing service offering that provides web-based software applications to customers on-demand. SaaSproviders host a fully-functional application through a browser-based interface and makeit accessible to the users through the Internet.
SaaS offeringsallows the cloud to be leveraged for software architecture thereby reducing the overhead of support, maintenance, and operations as the applications run on systems belonging to the vendor. SaaS is the most familiar cloud computing service offering as users most often interact directly with SaaS applications like Netflix, Gmail, JIRA,Dropbox, or Salesforce.
SaaS is asubscription-based offering where users subscribe tosoftware on a monthly basis instead if purchasing it so there are no upfront costs involved. It also provides aprovisionto the users to end the subscription when it is no longer needed.
Examples of SaaSCloud Computing Services:
SAP Business ByDesign, Zoho CRM, AppDynamics, Microsoft Office 365, Pardot Marketing Automation.
Features and Benefits of SaaS Cloud Computing Service
- There is noinitialsetup cost as the users can make use of the application as soon as theysubscribe. Thereis no hardware cost as well because the processing power is supplied by the service provider.
- Flexible payments as the users pay for the services on a pay-as-you-gomodel.
- Any updates to the software are automatic and free of charge.
- SaaS providescross-devicecompatibilitybecause SaaS applications can be accessed through any internet enableddevices, such as laptop, smartphone, or desktop.
- Enterprises need not engage an IT expert to download the software on multiple systems in the office nor have to worry about the keeping the software up-to-date on every PC.
4. Functions as a Service (FaaS)
Before we understand Functionsas a Service, it is important to understand the most popular tech term associated withFaaS– serverless computing. Serverless computing is a cloud computing model that takes away low-level infrastructure decisions and server management from the developers. The application architect need not deal with the allocation of resources as it is managed by the cloud service provider.
FaaSis a brand-new and very young cloud computing service acting as a game-changer for many businesses.Itis a serverless computing concept that lets software developers develop applications and deploy an individual “function”, piece of business logic, oranaction without maintaining aserver. Itincreases the efficiency as developers need nottoconsider server operations because they are hosted externally.
Examples ofFaaSinclude Google Cloud Function, Microsoft Azure Functions, Webtask.io,Iron.io ,Open Whisk,and AWS Lambda.
Features andBenefitsofFaaSCloud Computing Service
- Money is never wasted on inactive resources as users are billed depending on the amount of functionality used.
- Makes developers efficient as they can focus more on writingapplication-specific logic rather than having to deal with the server logistics.
- FaaScode is inherently scalable and fault-tolerant.
Closing Thoughts
Every business can benefit from one or more cloud computing services as they help improveefficiencyand cut-down costs.Businesses can adopt one or more cloud computing services based on their requirements, areas of expertise, business processes, and otherpriorities. Akey consideration point when choosing a cloud computing service provider is to do enough research to understand business requirements and find providers who can offer desired cloud solutions that will work perfectlybased on the requirements.
Forthoseinterested in learning more about cloud computingservices,ExitCertifiedoffersseveralcloud training coursesin collaboration with major public cloud players likeIBM, GoogleCloud Platform, AWS, Azure, and Oracle courses that can help you upskillwith the latest cloudcomputingtools and technologies.
Download the ExitCertified whitepaper, “How to Ensure Maximum ROI on IT Initiatives with the Right Learning Partner" to discover how a learning partner can support you in all stages of planning, implementing, and enabling high-quality training that aligns business and IT initiatives.
Try our ROI Calculator and Estimate your Return-on-Investment (ROI) from Implementing Technical Training
5 Tips for Going Cloud-Native and Getting the Most Out of Your Cloud Investment
Learn More
- chevron_leftPrevious Article
- Next Articlechevron_right
Popular Links
- The 4 Types Of Cloud Computing Services [Infographic]
Tagged Topics
- Article
- AWS
- Cloud
- Microsoft
- Guides
Popular Posts
Latest Posts
Recommended
Search Articles
Four Questions to Ask Before Choosing Your Training Provider + FREE checklist
In this post, we answer the four questions to ask before choosing your training provider. We’ve included some of those important questions about reputation, course quality, delivery options, and customer service on our complimentary ExitCertified Training Provider Checklist, now available.
Multi-cloud environments offer companies many technology and business benefits. And, by using the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), companies can easily manage multi-cloud topologies.
How to Optimize Your Current Technologies and Methodologies
In this blog post, we’ll look at some of the top methodologies and technologies you could optimize if your IT team were using them better.
View All Categories
