There is a change of tide recently in the way IT is operated; it’s the era of the cloud. Not the white fluffy phenomena in the sky, but the ones running in datacenters. Not all electric cloud is the same. There are three different types SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). What’s common in all cloud service is the shared responsibility between the cloud provider and you.
In IaaS most of the responsibility is on your shoulder. The provider will take care of electricity network and the hardware for you. This is not much different from running your own laptop. You need to make sure that you take backup, install applications, and maintain your computer. You still get a good deal as building datacenter is expensive, slow, risky and needs a variety of experts. With IaaS you pull your credit card and pay 10 dollars to take care of all these things.
PaaS provider offload more responsibility from you. PaaS provider will keep core software up-to-date, configured, and easy to consume. However, you handle some of the software maintenance and many of the configuration. This is typically for you if you have in house experts who can build software, but you want them to focus on the pieces unique to you. You will pay a premium compared to IaaS or running your own datacenter, in return you can get faster development and more scalable product. PaaS hosted application seamlessly able to grow with use. They can serve one user to a million without major change as the provider takes care of scaling the platform.
SaaS provide you full service. The service provider takes care of everything, and all the plumbing is hidden. SaaS are specialized services like web mail, online conferencing or file sharing. The big advantage of this model that you can start using the service immediately and often no IT support is needed. Typically, the provider introduces new functions over time in a seamless manner that you can start using. This allows you to use the best tool and share the cost of development with other customers.
One of the most important decision every company needs to make before moving or building any system in the cloud is the way responsibilities are split. If you want to know how to choose the right model for your company, join one of our in-depth training. We would love to hear more what worked for you, share your favorite cloud service with us on twitter or Facebook.