What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Operating your own IT infrastructure requires a high level of technical expertise and entails a significant amount of work, making the costs prohibitive for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). At the same time, it is rarely possible to do without them without jeopardising the success of a business or at least significantly limiting its reach and efficiency. Two typical solutions to this problem are Managed Servers or the use of "Infrastructure as a Service" (IaaS). Since 2015, the focus has increasingly shifted towards the latter option, as it offers numerous advantages with few or negligible drawbacks.

Contents:
What idea is behind Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?
What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?
What are the features of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?
What are the benefits of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?
What are the drawbacks of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for customers?

What idea is behind Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

In the business world, outsourcing tasks to external companies has long been a reliable and efficient method to reduce costs for specific time- and labour-intensive processes without compromising the quality of a product. This concept has been increasingly prevalent in the IT industry since at least 2015, encompassing various approaches to tailor and optimise offerings to individual situations. The most well-known models include:

• Externally hosted programs as Software as a Service (SaaS)
• External environments for software development as Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• IT networks and computer systems as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Complex computations through Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS)
• Other services as Everything as a Service (XaaS)

A typical characteristic of Cloud Computing such as SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS is the fact that the services offered can usually be scaled. Many providers offer different packages for booking or tailor their offerings to individual needs. For example, with SaaS, it is common to limit the number of features or users to reduce costs for customers, while with PaaS, the criteria often include the amount of computing power used or the duration of usage.

What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Broadly defined, IaaS refers to an IT infrastructure provided by a provider, with the term infrastructure being relatively broad and not formally defined in this context. In general, it includes various products that can be used for an efficient and secure IT environment. These include, for example:

• Dedicated Servers with hardware exclusively used by a customer
• Virtual Servers with a contractually defined computing power
• Cloud Servers within a virtualised and scalable environment
• Complex networks and the necessary technology such as gateways or firewalls
• Fixed resources such as bandwidth, storage space, or external databases
• Separate connections or network nodes for specific tasks

This broad and not precisely defined interpretation means that numerous services commonly used in private households can also be described as IaaS in the literal sense - including, for example, an internet connection or a mobile phone contract. However, in practical terms, the term is mainly used to distinguish commercially used hardware for complex IT infrastructures, where, for example, a company server purchased once is used in the business premises or as colocation in a third-party data centre. Typically, IaaS refers preferably to Cloud Servers or infrastructure for distributed networks, managed and provided by an external provider.

What distinguishes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Like SaaS and PaaS, most IaaS providers use packages or flexibly scalable environments for which they guarantee certain minimum services. Possible options include:

• Permanent or temporary computing power of one or more instances
• Bandwidth and traffic limitation to a fixed node
• Storage space on drives and in RAM
• Exclusively reserved or shared connections to the internet
• Specialised hardware such as graphics or processor cards for AI calculations
• Specialised servers for web space (storage) or databases
• Complete and IT environments optimised for maximum efficiency

Although they were originally also considered as a fixed component of IaaS, many providers do not explicitly categorise classic products like web hosting, virtual and dedicated servers in this category. This is partly because they do not represent a complete and independent infrastructure, but rather form a node within it. Another reason is that the term is sometimes used specifically to differentiate complex services and the cloud servers that are not hosted on fixed hardware.

What are the benefits of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

The concept of IaaS offers numerous advantages for providers and their customers, which is why it has increasingly established itself for commercial and mission-critical IT infrastructures since 2015. Some of the most important benefits include:

• No need for investments in hardware procurement
• High flexibility and scalability of individual servers and complex networks
• Improved utilisation, stability, and efficiency of IT systems
• Ready-to-use and easy-to-use solutions from a single source
• Lower costs through specialisation in actually used services
• Precise billing based on computing power or time possible
• Professional administration by the operator ensures high IT security
• Easy customisation of services is possible

The key arguments and advantages of IaaS undoubtedly lie in lower costs, extremely high flexibility in selecting services, and excellent stability and security. Being a service in the cloud and not on fixed hardware, it also proves to be independent of many sources of errors such as the failure of individual components, ensuring maximum availability. Furthermore, infrastructures can be optimised for specific purposes - a prerequisite for enabling efficient and stable web hosting of global platforms with high visitor traffic and fluctuating usage, such as the search engine Google, the social network Facebook, the software developer Microsoft, or the online retailer Amazon. For this reason, these companies exclusively offer IaaS, for which they use their own infrastructure.

What disadvantages does Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) have for customers?

Although the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, IaaS also presents some drawbacks for customers to consider when choosing between IaaS, virtual or dedicated servers, or web hosting. Flexible contracts with billing based on time or resources may lack complete cost control if payment is not made through prepaid models and the provider does not set fixed limits. A particular risk is the potential misuse by criminals who, after unauthorized access, may use storage space or computing power for their own purposes. Furthermore, almost all cloud solutions have no fixed location, so in legal issues, jurisdiction is solely determined by the company's headquarters.

Photo: dlohner on Pixabay