Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) refers to cloud computing technology. It provides basic computing, networking, and storage resources. IaaS is among the four basic cloud services —function as a service (FaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS) are the others.
When you use IaaS products, you can save on hardware costs, decrease maintenance costs for on-premises data centers, and gain more flexibility for scaling. Ultimately, IaaS solutions help you avoid the cost and complexity of purchasing and managing data center infrastructure and physical servers. You can also select IaaS resources individually, meaning you only pay for the specific resources you need.
Top 4 IaaS Companies
Amazon is one of the most popular eCommerce stores today. You can buy nearly any product you want off of Amazon. On top of that, they also have an excellent reputation in the cloud computing space with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS is one of the most renowned IaaS offerings. In fact, it serves clients from 190 countries and exists in over 20 different regions around the world. AWS offers high-end application programming interfaces (APIs) to handle low-end tasks for servers. These tasks include data distribution and physical computing.
Main Features
Identity and Access Management: With AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), you can grant unique permission to each user in your team depending on their job duties. This gives you total control over who has access to what and when.
Free Tier: Amazon’s free tier allows new customers to gain hands-on experience. You can test out AWS before you spend money on it.
Load Balancing: AWS has Elastic Load Balancing, a feature that distributes application traffic as evenly as possible across multiple targets and virtual appliances. This improves both availability and scalability.
Cost Management: AWS has a cost management tool to help you budget, forecast, and optimize how much your business spends.
Azure is another cloud-computing industry giant. Released in 2008, Azure’s IaaS offerings promote improved management of software applications. The Azure IaaS platform relieves you of the tedious job of dealing with physical computing so that you can focus on front-end procedures such as scripting and scaling.
Main Features
Cloud Backup and Recovery: Azure Backup is a cost-effective feature that allows you to back up your data and recover it after a disaster. You can back up files, virtual machines (VMs), and more.
High-Performance Computing: This feature is advantageous for developers who need high-performance computing to run complex applications.
Resource Management: Azure also simplifies resource management with a service that allows you to easily create, update, or delete resources on your account.
Scalability and Security: The scalability feature can automatically scale to match your current needs, increasing capacity when needed and returning to normal when things slow down. Also, Azure has a highly secure infrastructure with built-in security controls and complex threat intelligence.
Many people are familiar with Google as a search engine and for innovations such as Google Voice and Gmail. The Google Cloud Platform is another product from Google, and it’s considered one of the most convenient and easy-to-use IaaS tools. With this platform, you only have to worry about writing and deploying software applications.
Main Features
Data Analytics: Many users prefer Google Cloud for dealing with large chunks of data. The innovative artificial intelligence (AI) turns data dumps into insights for more informed decision-making.
Reliability: In day-to-day usage, applications may demand more resources at different times because of increased usage. With Google Cloud’s efficiency and reliability, you can add and remove resources without delays, so these fluctuations are no issue.
Scalability: With Google Cloud Platform, you can scale resources according to the current demands of your applications. You can even define metric benchmarks that increase or decrease resources automatically.
Testing and Development: The testing and development feature of the Google Cloud Platform is one of a kind. This platform offers a reliable and convenient environment to test and develop software applications. Developers find this platform reliable and easy to use when experimenting with software applications.
Alibaba Cloud, also known as AliYun, is a Chinese IaaS provider. This platform is affiliated with the Alibaba eCommerce site. Established in 2009, this IaaS solution serves over 200 countries. Alibaba Cloud has numerous features that allow you to deal with IaaS tasks effectively.
Main Features
Scalability: Alibaba Cloud offers scalable storage enabling users to increase their storage capacity for better performance. With Auto Scaling, it can adjust automatically based on your needs.
Monitoring: Alibaba Cloud has a real-time monitoring feature called CloudMonitor that allows you to keep an eye on your usage of resources. As a result, you can execute actions based on the results of this monitoring and set alarms to notify you when you reach certain limits.
Backup and Recovery: The Alibaba Cloud Hybrid Backup Recovery feature saves and recovers your data almost instantaneously in the event of a crash or other incident.
Additional Resources
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