The days of large capital investments in software and IT infrastructure are long gone for any company that decides to adopt the cloud computing model for procurement of IT services. There are three different cloud IT services that are delivered remotely to clients via the internet. Customers usually pay a monthly or annual service fee to providers in order to gain access to systems that deliver software as a service, platforms as a service and infrastructure as a service to subscribers.
If you decide to subscribe to cloud IT services, you will be able to reduce your IT service expenditures for your company and have access to more flexible and agile enterprise level computer services. What makes cloud computing different from other types of od services is that it is managed, it is “on-demand” and it can be either private or public. Speaking of cloud computing, there are three main solutions.
Software as a Services – SaaS
This service will provide you with the ability to use software applications via an internet web browser. You can access these applications regardless of your location via the internet as your IT service provider hosts SaaS applications and their associated data at their location. One of the biggest advantages of using SaaS is the low cost. With this cloud-based solution, you will need to pay much less than you will need to pay if you are using the traditional model od software delivery. Installation costs, licensing fees, support and maintenance fees that usually come with the traditional model of software delivery can be virtually eliminated by subscribing this clouding model of software delivery. Some of the examples of SaaS are Google applications and Internat based applications like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo.
Platform as a Service – PaaS
This service represents a new model of software development that will provide you with the ability to develop and publish customized applications in a hosted environment via the internet. PaaS provides a framework for agile software development, deployment, testing, and maintenance. Same as SaaS, PaaS also comes with a lower cost of use, as you will need to pay less for implementing software development, deployment and testing as opposed to using traditional tools. Generally, platform as a service will provide you with a cost-effective and more efficient solution for enterprise software development.
Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS
This cloud service and solution will allow you to remotely use IT hardware and resources on a “pay-as-you-go” basis. Some of the popular companies that use IaaS are Amazon, Google, and IBM. IaaS use visualization, a method of managing and creating infrastructure resources in cloud computing. Also, IaaS is great for small companies as it helps them to expand their infrastructure without large capital investments in peripheral and hardware systems.