Overview
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model that delivers computing resources such as servers, storage, networking, and virtualisation over the internet. Instead of purchasing and maintaining physical hardware, organisations rent these resources from cloud providers on a pay-as-you-go basis.
What Problem Does It Solve?
Traditional infrastructure requires heavy upfront investment, ongoing maintenance, and long provisioning times. IaaS solves this by offering on-demand infrastructure that can scale up or down quickly. This makes it easier for businesses to innovate, cut costs, and respond to changing demands without being tied to physical data centres.
How It Works
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Virtual machines: Provide computing power for running applications.
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Storage services: Offer scalable, redundant storage for data and backups.
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Networking: Enables secure connectivity between resources, users, and the internet.
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Management tools: Cloud providers supply dashboards and APIs to manage resources programmatically.
Everyday Benefits
- Reduced capital expenditure with pay-per-use billing.
- Faster provisioning compared to buying and setting up hardware.
- Elastic scalability to handle peaks in demand.
- High availability and disaster recovery built into provider infrastructure.
Deployment Considerations
Popular IaaS providers include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). While IaaS provides flexibility, organisations are still responsible for managing operating systems, applications, and security settings. It is best suited for enterprises that want control over their environments without the burden of managing physical infrastructure.
