What is the difference between IaaS, SaaS and PaaS?

What is the difference between IaaS, SaaS and PaaS?

Cloud computing has become the lifeline of all kinds of organizational set-ups- whether big or small. Through cloud computing, organizations can share unlimited virtual resources present in the cloud.

Cloud technology services are of three types:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
• SaaS (Software as a Service)
• PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Organizations that plan to move to the cloud platform can use the above services as per their requirements. Each of these services has its own uniqueness, service offerings, and advantages. Organizations, therefore, need to understand the differences between IaaS, SaaS, and Paas, before deciding on which services will suit them best in their organizational set-ups.

Let us have an in-depth understanding of each of the services of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. Each section will be explained under the following heads for your understanding and convenience:

1. What is IaaS/SaaS/PaaS
2. The Iaas/SaaS/PaaS delivery model.
3. Examples
4. Applications
5. Advantages

In the end, we will be looking at the differences between Iaas, SaaS, and PaaS

What is SaaS:

SaaS or Software as a Service, as the name suggests, is a cloud technology service, where the SaaS provider hosts various applications on the cloud and makes them available to customers over the internet. SaaS is also known as cloud application services and is one of the most commonly used cloud services.

The SaaS provider, apart from making the application available to the end-users, will also be responsible for providing services such as managing the client’s data, storage, and managing the application’s updates. Most of the SaaS applications will run on the web browsers directly. This means that the end-users will just need a computer with an internet connection and a browser to access the applications.

Consequently, business organizations using the SaaS model do not need to hire separate staff for tasks such as downloading, installing, upgrading and managing software on each machine separately. Instead, the staff can concentrate on more pressing and important tasks whole the SaaS provider takes care of all of those issues.