These are cloud computing services that you should know:
1. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
2. PaaS (Platform as a Service)
3. SaaS (Software as a Service)
4. MDSaaS (Middleware as a Service)
Let us discuss each in detail below:
Cloud Computing Services
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
It is the delivery of computer infrastructure in the form of services. The cloud provider maintains the network, storage, and servers while you can deploy your operating system and run your application on it as per your needs. You can also use the servers for creating virtual machines on demand. The IaaS service is managed by either a public or private cloud provider.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
It is the delivery of a software platform and its related services to cloud users. The PaaS service provides tools, libraries, and programming languages for creating applications. The application development platforms come under this category that provides software frameworks and other related tools that make developing applications easy. When it comes to deployment, you will have to do it yourself.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
It is a delivery of software hosted by the cloud provider which is accessed over the internet/intranet network by using a thin client or web browser. The software runs on the cloud provider’s server and not on your local machine.
You just need an internet connection to use SaaS applications like Gmail, Facebook, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc. While using SaaS apps, we pay to use them but they are not owned by us. Also, we cannot modify them in any way or add our code to them unlike in the case of other computer software where we can do that in the case of Paid Software or Open Source Software (OSS).
Middleware as a Service (MDSaaS)
This service refers to delivering middleware like databases, messaging; over the internet/intranet network by using a thin client or web browser.
This also allows us to access multiple software systems over a network like SAP ERP, Microsoft SharePoint from anywhere. For example, through internet/intranet network with no local installation required on our computer system and hence making it more convenient for us to access such systems in future too when required at any location across the globe through internet connectivity.
This also provides an alternative to installing such middleware locally on our computer system at our own cost but with limited functionalities unlike when you install them locally at your cost but with full functionalities provided by such middleware vendors here too when using the SaaS model as both serve different purposes in this regard here too which we will see in detail below.
The MDSaaS services are provided by cloud service providers like SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle, etc.
As the middleware is hosted by the cloud provider, some of the advantages are:
1. Reduces time to market
2. Provides easy access to middleware at any location across the globe
3. Provides better disaster recovery and business continuity options
4. Can be used as a private cloud too
5. Is easier to use and manage than doing it on your own
6. Cost-effective as hosting it in the cloud reduces the cost of ownership of such middleware while they are upgraded automatically and on-demand.