Infrastructure as a Service: What it is and its Use Cases

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a cloud computing service that offers customers access to essential computer, networking, processing, and storage resources on-demand, using a pay-per-use basis. Essentially, IaaS provides virtualized computing services and resources over the internet, making it very appealing to customers because it is often simpler, faster, and less expensive than traditional hosting.

Why Use IaaS?

Many companies use IaaS nowadays because it gives them an easy way to scale and grow their businesses. In the past, these companies would have had to rent the infrastructure for a predetermined period with a predetermined hardware configuration. Also, they would have had to pay a fee even if the services or resources were not used.

However, with the help of IaaS, customers can now dynamically adjust the configuration of their resources to meet their changing needs and only pay for the services they actually use.

Benefits of Infrastructure as a Service

Some of the many benefits of using IaaS include the following:

#1 It is Cost-Efficient

Since acquiring computing resources to run applications or store data the traditional way requires time and capital, the pay-as-you-go subscription model offered by IaaS providers is very helpful in reducing hardware costs and maintenance. It also enables your IT team to focus on core business.

#2 It Increases Stability and Reliability

With IaaS, there’s also no need to maintain and upgrade software and hardware or troubleshoot equipment problems. Even if any component of the hardware resources fails, the service will usually remain available. More so, with the appropriate agreement in place, the service provider can always ensure that your infrastructure is reliable and meets service-level agreements (SLAs).

#3 It Boosts Productivity

Because the cloud provider is responsible for setting up and maintaining the underlying physical infrastructure, enterprise IT departments save time and money and can redirect resources to more strategic activities.

#4 It Boosts Innovation

By using IaaS, companies can spend more time growing their business rather than making more minor technology decisions. They can focus on developing their applications and solutions with more time and resources. In addition, with IaaS, you can build a new app or product in minutes or hours rather than in days or weeks since there’s no need to set up infrastructure beforehand.

#5 It is Scalable

Companies using IaaS can scale up and down depending on their requirements, which is considered one of the most significant benefits of IaaS. This flexibility with scaling lets companies responds to any change that may come to opportunities or requirements, including when the company size changes or when the company is building and dismantling developmental environments.

Common IaaS Use Cases

IaaS offers a broad range of possible applications that can benefit organizations. Here are some everyday use cases:

• Web applications: If an organization is hosting a web application, IaaS can provide the necessary storage resources, servers, and networking. With this, deployment can be made quickly, and the cloud infrastructure can be easily scaled up or down according to the application’s demand.

• High-performance computing (HPC): Complex tasks such as scientific computations, financial modeling, and product design work usually involve using supercomputers or clusters. For this, IaaS can be a better alternative because of its scalability.

• Testing and development: The computing and networking power behind IaaS makes it a perfect place to run and manage testing and development cycles. With SLAs in place from providers and a high level of security, enterprises can trust IaaS to run business-critical projects and get to market faster with higher scalability of computing resources.

Conclusion

Moving your organization’s infrastructure to an IaaS solution has several advantages. With it, you no longer have to undergo specialized training and lengthy provisioning cycles to upgrade your infrastructure. Instead, you can devote your time and resources to managing your business. As a result, it is vital to evaluate providers and choose the one that optimally matches your expertise, availability guarantees, price, and security certifications when choosing which IaaS provider to use for your organization.