IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

In this model, we are responsible for the most part. Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) manages the hardware part, in some cases, they install the necessary software. We have the most control in this model and manage costs more effectively. This model is very useful for a developer, for example, if the developer needs to start the VM to test the application and then stop. Billing will stop as soon as the developer stops the machine.

Mostly IaaS is for temporary use and allows the organization to scale out to accomplish the task and scale back in after completing the task. The organization uses CSP shared datacenter for computing resources which include servers, storage, and networking.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Engine (GCE) are examples of IaaS

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

In PaaS, the organization mostly focuses on their application and CSPs manage their operating system (OS). PaaS allows the organization to offload management and control of the underlying system to the cloud provider. In this model, the company minimizes their management investment if they consider deploying a new application.

In this model the company can just focus on the application, for example, if they need a framework such as PHP, Node.js, Java, or Python, the environment is provided by CSPs. Also, it has multiple versions of each framework to avoid compatibility issues. So, PaaS is very beneficial in minimizing management costs.

Examples of PaaS are AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, and Google App Engine.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

In this model, the whole infrastructure and platform are managed by CSPs. The organization only uses the application either through a web browser or application. This model has very little control over the backend environment and the user doesn’t even know the changes or updates happening in the background. SaaS often comes with the subscription model (pay-as-you-go) because it’s like we rent the software from the service provider.

Some of the SaaS are Google Workspace, Dropbox, and Slack