Cloud computing has transformed how organizations access and manage technology. Instead of building and maintaining every piece of infrastructure or software in-house, companies now commonly turn to three cloud service models to offload parts of their IT stack:

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Understanding the differences between these models is essential for making the right cloud strategy decisions. This article will compare IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, including examples, key benefits, and challenges of each.

What is IaaS vs. PaaS vs. SaaS in Cloud Computing?

In general, the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS in cloud computing is the level of control a user gets over their IT infrastructure.

For example, IaaS provides a barebones structure for businesses that can be used for software stack and application management, while allowing the greatest level of control.

PaaS puts more of the control in the hands of the cloud service providers, while enabling developers to manage the full application lifecycle without needing to handle the underlying infrastructure.

SaaS resources give users the lowest level of control, but are the easiest to use, as these resources are fully built software applications available via the internet.

What is IaaS?

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides on-demand, virtualized infrastructure resources over the internet, including compute, storage, and networking. Providers will maintain the infrastructure that customers can access via the internet, and businesses can use the resources to run a variety of tasks, including running virtual machines, managing data storage, and developing applications.

IaaS, like other as-a-service resources, is generally offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, charging customers for resource usage of the infrastructural components.

Examples of IaaS

Some examples of IaaS include:

• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Google Cloud Platform
• IBM Cloud
• DigitalOcean Droplets

What is PaaS?

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is a model that provides a managed platform organizations can use to create and deploy applications in the cloud. All necessary components for application development, testing, management, and deployment are available through PaaS, including the operating system, database, web server, and programming language execution environment. Businesses do not need to worry about managing servers, networking, and storage, allowing them to focus on the application itself.

PaaS is also a pay-as-you-go resource, where businesses pay for the platform stack and deploy applications on the platform.

Examples of PaaS

Some examples of PaaS include:

• SAP Cloud
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk
• Microsoft Azure App Service
• Google App Engine
• OpenShift

What is SaaS?

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a model that is likely most familiar to the average end-user. This is when a provider develops a software application and makes it available over the internet based on a subscription model. This means that the cloud provider is responsible for maintaining the software, including maintenance and updates, and all the user has to do is manage things like internal password hygiene practices and licensing for the necessary number of users.

Examples of SaaS

Examples of SaaS can encompass many different categories, including:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) software: HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho
• Workspace productivity suites: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365
• Video Conferencing: Zoom, Teams, Google Hangout
• File hosting / storage services: Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Sync

Comparing Cloud Service Model Benefits

Deciding when to use IaaS over PaaS or SaaS will depend on the benefits an organization hopes to gain from the resource. IT teams should also factor in their level of internal expertise, how much control they want or need over the resource, and their budget to complete a project.

IaaS Benefits

IT teams that choose IaaS will have the most control over their applications and operating systems, which can benefit businesses with specific security and compliance requirements. For example, health care and financial companies may have specific concerns that can be best addressed with IaaS.

All levels of cloud computing resources can be easily scalable, but for IaaS, the cost savings can be even greater if the alternative is purchasing and maintaining hardware and infrastructure in an on-premises environment. This can get even more costly if organizations can’t accurately predict their resource needs. Scaling up and down as needed will reduce expenses and allow for faster growth.

Because the infrastructure isn’t located in one space, IaaS providers offer greater disaster recovery to businesses by enabling them to duplicate infrastructure in geographically distinct locations. If an eCommerce business experiences an outage, the failover location can become the temporary production environment, so sales can continue without disruption.

PaaS Benefits

PaaS is great for developers who want to solely focus on application development, leaving the other work to a provider. Cutting down on other distractions can mean developers test and deploy applications faster, reducing the time to market and gaining a much-needed edge. This can make a significant difference for startups in competitive marketplaces. Because cloud providers are responsible for server maintenance, platform scaling, and patching, businesses save time and resources that can be further dedicated to the application, reducing costs.

SaaS Benefits

When organizations are looking for easily accessible, user-friendly software to add to their stack, SaaS can fulfill that role. Because users can access SaaS typically from any device without having to worry about installation or upgrades, IT teams have less to manage on a user-by-user basis. The cost of SaaS depends on the number of licenses or the level of usage, shifting pay from capital expenditures (CapEx) to operational expenditures (OpEx), which can often result in cost savings. Adding or removing a user is usually as easy as purchasing or canceling a license or user seat.

Challenges of Each Cloud Service Model

While organizations can gain various benefits from IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS resources, they also come with challenges, particularly if these are tools that are new to the organization. Understanding how to manage these tools and how to monitor usage will mitigate most of their challenges.

IaaS Challenges

Because IaaS offers the greatest level of control, it also comes with the most responsibility for the customer. Businesses must be able to configure correctly to avoid performance issues or security vulnerabilities. Because it can be so easy to provision resources on this and other levels of service delivery, understanding when to remove or rightsize resources can help combat challenges associated with overspending.

PaaS Challenges

While developers can customize on the application level with PaaS, they don’t have as much control over the infrastructure. This means that if developers need a specific feature on the infrastructure level not currently offered by the cloud provider, they may run into difficulties in the development and deployment process. Understanding what resources the cloud provider can offer before signing on can prevent this issue.

SaaS Challenges

SaaS resources are ready to go out of the box. That also means that customization is at its most limited. Businesses may have to compromise on what they want in features. While SaaS applications are accessible from any device, they are also mainly dependent on an internet connection, meaning that an outage on either side can result in reduced productivity, revenue, and disruptions for end users. For businesses that use multiple SaaS tools, integration problems can also arise, which may necessitate additional third-party tools or specialists who can help connect the tools together.

When Should You Use IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS?

So, how do you make the choice between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS? By identifying which resources best balance organizational needs for customization, scalability, and control while remaining within the budget and the skillset of the internal team, your business can effectively choose appropriate service levels for different tasks.

IaaS Use Cases

IaaS is best for teams that need complete control over their systems at a foundational level, without the desire to manage hardware and architecture. This may be because a business is using a legacy application that’s hard to integrate with modern tools, or because an organization has stringent, specific compliance requirements. Applications can also more easily move to an IaaS environment as part of a “lift-and-shift” migration without needing to re-architect much. IaaS resources can also be useful for big data analytics projects that involve the storage and processing of massive datasets–particularly when significant customization is necessary.

PaaS Use Cases

When the main goal is to develop, test, deploy, and manage applications, PaaS is a great fit for your organization. PaaS creates ready-to-go test environments where new code and features can be implemented without teams having to worry about setting up infrastructure. PaaS can also support containerization and orchestration, so if your organization is working on developing microservices, it can also be an apt fit. While IaaS might be best for big data analytics, PaaS can be helpful for hosting business intelligence platforms on a slightly smaller scale.

SaaS Use Cases

Many common business functions, like sending emails, maintaining a customer database, managing inventory, and performing accounting functions, can be satisfied with SaaS resources. As long as your team has a reliable internet connection, SaaS can enable more effective remote work and collaboration. It’s also a great choice for small to medium-sized businesses that need access to tools without incurring enterprise-level costs.

IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS: Which is Right for You?

Cloud computing can help businesses integrate, scale, and develop in a way that is hard to do with on-premises environments alone. But choosing the delivery model that is right for your organization between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS doesn’t always mean choosing one resource or abandoning on-prem altogether. Oftentimes, organizations will have workloads deployed across all three types of environments.

For example, they might use several cloud-native SaaS applications, as well as have migrated some of their mission-critical applications to a private, hosted IaaS environment. For development and testing, they’ll use PaaS, but then they may migrate their production workloads to either a private or public cloud environment (IaaS) for additional security and compliance.

The possible configurations are endless, so it’s not as much about IaaS vs. PaaS vs. SaaS as it is about considering all three working together to tend to your particular organization’s needs. The key is to choose the right mix. If you’re looking for support in finding the magic combination, TierPoint can help.