What is Infrastructure as a Service in Cloud Computing | EduBridge India

Infrastructure as a service in cloud computing i.e. Iaas is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is one of the platform’s layers for cloud computing. Customers can contract out their IT infrastructures, including servers, networking, computing, storage, virtual machines, and other resources. Customers employ a pay-per-use business model to access these resources on the Internet.

Traditional hosting services involved renting out IT infrastructure with a predetermined hardware configuration for a set amount of time. Regardless of how much was actually used, the client was charged for the setup and time. Clients can flexibly scale the configuration to meet changing requirements with the aid of the IaaS cloud computing platform layer and are only charged for the services that are actually used.

Every firm no longer needs to maintain their IT infrastructure thanks to the IaaS cloud computing platform layer.

Three forms of IaaS are available: public, private, and hybrid clouds. According to the private cloud, the infrastructure is predicated on the customer’s premises. The public cloud is housed in the data center of the company that provides the cloud computing platform, while the hybrid cloud combines the greatest features of both private and public clouds.

IaaS provider provides the following services –

• Compute: Computing as a Service includes virtual central processing units and virtual main memory for the Vms that is provisioned to the end- users.

• Storage: IaaS provider provides back-end storage for storing files.

• Network: Network as a Service (NaaS) provides networking components such as routers, switches, and bridges for the Vms.

• Load balancers: It provides load balancing capability at the infrastructure layer.

Advantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

There are the following advantages of IaaS computing layer –

• Shared infrastructure

IaaS allows multiple users to share the same physical infrastructure.

• Web access to the resources

Iaas allows IT users to access resources over the internet.

• Pay-as-per-use model

IaaS providers provide services based on the pay-as-per-use basis. The users are required to pay for what they have used.

• Focus on the core business

IaaS providers focus on the organization’s core business rather than on IT infrastructure.

• On-demand scalability

On-demand scalability is one of the biggest advantages of IaaS. Using IaaS, users do not worry about upgrading software and troubleshoot the issues related to hardware components.

Disadvantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

• Security

Security is one of the biggest issues in IaaS. Most of the IaaS providers are not able to provide 100% security.

• Maintenance & Upgrade

Although IaaS service providers maintain the software, they do not upgrade the software for some organizations.

• Interoperability issues

It is difficult to migrate VM from one IaaS provider to the other, so the customers might face problems related to vendor lock-in.

Some important point about IaaS cloud computing layer

The old hosting approach cannot be replaced by the IaaS cloud computing platform, but it offers more, and each resource is predictable based on demand.

The requirement for an internal IT department may still exist even with the IaaS cloud computing platform. It will be necessary to keep track of or manage the IaaS setup. Although other IT expenses can be cut, IT pay costs might not be greatly decreased.

IaaS cloud computing platform provider failures could put your company’s operations on hold. Analyze the financial health and stability of the IaaS cloud computing platform provider. Make that backups are offered for data, hardware, network, and application failures by SLAs (i.e., Service Level Agreements). A benefit is the mobility of the images and third-party assistance.

The IaaS cloud computing platform vendor can get access to your sensitive data. So, engage with credible companies or organizations. Study their security policies and precautions.

Conclusion

IaaS has revolutionized the hosting industry by allowing clients to pay for only what they use. This business model is more flexible and cost-effective, which is why it is becoming increasingly popular.