In this article we will see the major difference between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a service ( PaaS).
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): is in effect much like building a set of services and virtual machines and networks in a Cloud as the user would On-Premises. But the difference is that, someone else is building and hosting the physical infrastructure for the user and the user chooses to configure the infrastructure that is fit for the application. For example: Amazon, Azure, Rackspace and so on. Here the user needs to go and set up the virtual machines, configure the networking, decide machine sizes, memory and cores. How the user wants the networking to fit with on-premise networking, how the user wants the IP addresses to work and so on. But the physical aspect is taken care of by the providers.So here the user does not need to purchase software, servers, or network equipment. These are rented as a fully outsourced service that is usually billed depending on the amount of resources consumed.Platform as a Service ( PaaS): A Platform is a cloud that gives the user various frameworks, tools and services on the cloud and the user are building the application in the cloud leveraging these various tools, services and components within the application. There could be services/applications such as for managing customer orders, monitoring shipments, invoicing clients, coordinating freight movements, reporting data for earth mining movements, underwater movements, accounting and billing and much more that can be built as a PaaS. PaaS frameworks allow the user to create applications using software components that are controlled by the provider.In a big organization with multiple divisions, a business process that is cut across divisions, can be thought of as a PaaS application catering to these divisions on a private cloud. A single team will be responsible for integration, tweaks and extension of the business process to various department needs. Thus this will not only reduce cost but ensure that the business process is indeed compliant in true respect throughout the organization.
Both IaaS and PaaS help organizations to minimize operational costs and increase their productivity as they get faster time to market and requires no up-front investments.
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