{"id":1356,"date":"2020-07-07T10:03:59","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T04:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nuventure.in\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2023-04-03T19:01:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T13:31:41","slug":"what-exactly-is-iaas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuventureconnect.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/07\/what-exactly-is-iaas\/","title":{"rendered":"What exactly is IaaS?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IaaS<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service is one of the three types of cloud computing services available. In some ways, it can be considered as the first step into cloud computing, in the sense that, compared to PaaS or SaaS, you\u2019ll still be controlling most of the tasks. Basically you get nothing but raw computing power, and you can decide the operating system, middleware, and everything else, while everything from server management to virtualization will be done by the provider. You don\u2019t have to worry about the hardware or the maintenance, but at the same time, you use it the way you would use your on-premise hardware. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How it works<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Infrastructure as a Service, the entire hardware is owned and maintained by the provider. The provider also does the virtualization, but there ends their role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The provider manages the servers, as well as the networking and the storage. Now the best part about this is that you don\u2019t have to worry about costs associated with maintaining or replacing them as needed. Most cloud service providers also provide backup services, load balancing, and autoscaling<\/a>.  They have redundant systems in place to ensure that the system keeps running even in the case of a hardware failure. And through autoscaling, the computational resources required by your application is automatically scaled up or down, so as to manage cost without compromising performance. This is particularly relevant for the pay-as-you-go model offered by many IaaS providers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtualisation and hypervisor are two terms that you\u2019ll come across when you are searching about IaaS. Virtualisation<\/a> is the process by which the computational resources of a single machine is divided to run multiple operating systems and applications on it. It\u2019s one of the most common techniques used to save hardware and energy costs by cloud providers. And it is exactly what it sounds like. Basically, using software referred to as a hypervisor<\/a>, many different machines(computer hardware) are emulated or virtual machines are created. Now different operating systems or applications can be run on these machines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up until this level, that is virtualisation, everything is done by the IaaS provider. On top of this you install whichever operating system you want, as well as middleware(the connecting link between the OS and the application), and the application. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re familiar with cloud gaming, Shadow offers something very similar to IaaS. You basically get access to a virtual Windows 10 PC with a certain amount of storage and RAM, as well as a high-end processor, and a graphics card for a subscription, and you can install whatever games you want from Microsoft store or Steam. But in the case of IaaS, you can decide the OS, and the computing power, as well as storage, is very flexible and easily scalable depending on the needs. And as mentioned earlier, its pay-as-you-go. And you don\u2019t use IaaS services for playing Fortnite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top IaaS providers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you do a Google search for top IaaS providers, you\u2019ll find a lot of articles and lists and in every one of them, you\u2019ll find these four:<\/p>\n\n\n\n