Types of Cloud services and its uses

By Darshik Jariwala - February, 19th 2013

Cloud computing is THE next level of computing. Slowly and steadily, all the companies have either moved in or are in process of moving into this arena, while the rest are planning on it. There are different types of cloud computing services available as well.

Recommended Reading: Cloud Computing Explained

In our last article, we discussed the meaning of cloud computing. We also saw its benefits, the risks we might run into while using it, and how we all have been using it for a while. We have yet to discuss the different types of cloud services and more importantly, its uses & importance.

 

Type of Cloud services

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Infrastructure is nothing but the computer hardware equipments like Servers, Networking devices, Storage units, etc. Now, spare a second to think how much you would have to spend on your infrastructure if you are starting a new company and not to forget the expenditure behind its maintenance (for as long as your company runs). What if you miscalculate the number of equipments you actually require? Which brings us to the first and perhaps one of the important types of cloud services. Infrastructure as a Service.

IaaS offers a solution to these problems. You can simply rent the hardware equipments from companies which provide these infrastructure services. What makes things even easier is that, you can buy infrastructure required at that point of time, instead of spending extra money on the equipments which you do not plan to use for the time being. The company providing IaaS also, of course, provides you with the support. The companies providing IaaS are Amazon, Microsoft, Google, HP and Oracle among many others.

Platform as a service (PaaS): PaaS is mainly for computer programmers or developers who write codes and develop applications and software’s that run on our systems. PaaS provides them the platform to write those applications, such as the operating system, databases, web server, etc. It allows you to develop, test, deploy, host and maintain those applications.The company even systematically upgrades and updates those applications from time-to-time. The developer no more has to worry about the maintenance or resources. The companies currently providing PaaS are SalesForce, Heroku, Microsoft, Google, Cloud Foundry among others.

Software as a service (SaaS): SaaS is one service which almost everyone of is familiar with and most of us are already using it. If you have ever used Google Docs or Microsoft SkyDrive to create your documents, it means you have already used or are using the SaaS cloud service. In SaaS, the applications provided by the company are stored over the cloud, meaning, they are accessible to you anywhere, with an internet connection. It is not a stored application in the computer. So if you are offline, i.e not connected to the internet, you can’t access it. There are free and paid SaaS services available, the paid service provides some premium features which free service doesn’t. Google docs is a completely free service, but Microsoft offers free service like SkyDrive as well as paid service, like Office 365.

So these are the 3 most basic types of cloud computing services. For now, you can research more on these services if the subject interests you. The technology is practically so vast, no matter how much you read and research, the next time you check, you find something new and interesting about it. I will also try the other services that it offers in my upcoming posts. Stay tuned.

Photo Credit – Sdhabeger/Wikimedia Commons