IaaS - Cloud Infrastructure

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Related terms: IT as a Service, Cloud Infrastructure, IaaS Tools, IaaS Providers, Enablement, Platforms, Tools, Cloud Controllers, Cloud , Infrastructure on Demand, Cloud Provisioning, Cloud Deployment Tools, IaaS Cloud Computing

What is IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service? The IaaS Cloud service model provides the consumer or sub¬scriber the with computer infrastructure including servers, network equipment, operating systems, memory, CPU, disk space, and data center facilities- as a service. Rather than purchasing servers, software, data-center space or network equipment, clients instead buy those resources as a fully outsourced service. Cloud IaaS typically bill for such services on a utility basis based on the amount of resources consumed. IaaS offerings are typically targeted at system administrators and software developers, who then can layer applications on top of these infrastructure resources as they are needed.

The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly select networking components (e.g., firewalls, load balancers). With IaaS, you can outsource your hardware needs to someone else. IaaS companies provide off-site server, storage, and networking hardware, which you rent and access over the Internet. Freed from maintenance costs and wasted office space, companies can run their applications on this hardware and access it anytime.

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service allows you to control the following elements of your infrastructure:

• Security
• Scalability
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Cost
• Hardware Location
• Uptime Reliability
• Technical Support
• Database ownership and retrieval

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