Cloud Hosting Service Models

Cloud Hosting Service Models

Cloud hosting is one of the hot topics in the current world and there are so may cloud providers that are available now. Amazon was the first to provide cloud hosting service for public, after that major players like Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and many other companies came into this market.So let us see about the different Cloud service models that are available. Current there are so many models but the major Cloud Hosting Service Models are:

• SaaS – Software as a Service
• PaaS – Platform as a Service
• IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

SaaS stands for “Software as a Service”. The provided service is like software that is most cases centrally hosted and accessible through the internet by a browser client. Customers can use the software without being concerned about computing resources and infrastructure or other money and time-consuming things but the only major requirement is stable internet connection.

SaaS characteristics :

• No need for software installation.
• Data can be stored on the online.
• Software and data can be accessed by any device.
• Data can be shared easily and effectively between multiple users.
• Highly advanced software can be used almost instantly.

SaaS Low Lights :

• Performance may vary based on the location availability.
• Security as everything is on vendor side.
• Data regulations will be a road block.
• Integration with the on-perm solutions to SaaS.

Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS)

PaaS stands for Platform as a Service. The provided service is a platform that the allows users to develop, manage and run applications through the internet. This can include middle ware that connects applications with operating systems, programming languages, web servers and other parts that build an environment that enables fast development and easy management of applications.So PaaS allows you to avoid the expense and complexity of buying and managing software licenses, the underlying application infrastructure and middleware, container orchestrators and other development tools.

PaaS characteristics:

• By providing a ready-to-use development environment, you save development costs and time
• You don’t have to worry about maintenance and backups as they are handled by the service provider
• As the infrastructure is provided and set-up by the service provider you can start using the service right away
• PaaS gives developers a lot of freedom such as choosing previously used applications for development and running them on the platform

PaaS Low Lights:

• Lack of scalability, you will not be able to scale up the resources based on the increase in demand and scale down when the resource requirement is less.
• Vendor dependent, once you sign up with a provider then you need to be with them for ever and cannot move to some other provider easily

So as an example of PaaS Google App Engine on Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure which let’s users deploy application without spending time on the backend as it allocates and scales resources automatically and provides other automated tools for application development and management.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

IaaS stands for “Infrastructure as a Service”. The provided service is a complete infrastructure but accessible through the internet containing networks, servers, operating systems and anything else that is required for building and running systems.

The user has a lot more freedom compared to SaaS and PaaS. In this the cloud service provider manages the Infrastructure like the actual servers, networks, storage. The consumer is free from those extra burden of managing them and the Opex cost is nearly zero. No need of a dedicated Infrastructure administrators and other support teams who need to work on maintenance of the servers and other hardware components.

IaaS characteristics:

• It comes with a ready-to-use development environment
• Gives the user the freedom of specifying hardware specs and setting up operating systems to use over the internet
• Provides easy to use resource scaling options
• Saves the user hardware maintenance and repair costs

IaaS Low Lights:

• Technical issues that might occur to the provider but will not be so transparent to the consumer.
• Security which is always spoken as major concern in cloud hosting models as the underlying infrastructure and data is with the vendor.

So as an example of IaaS is the Google Compute Engine on Google Cloud Platform, AWS Compute and Azure Cloud. It give users the option to set up virtual machines (VM’s) which operate very similar to traditional computers.

Read Also: Types of Web Hosting

General View of Cloud Hosting Service Models

Cloud hosting is like a plug and play kind of setup in recent days so it is very easy to setup. The major advantage is that it can be consumed very easily just with a minimum effort and can be accessed from any where but if we have an internet connection. All these hosting service models are available in public cloud, hybrid cloud and Private cloud offerings. Let us look into the Pro’s and Con’s

Cloud Hosting Service Models Pro’s:

• Plug and Play.
• Easy to access through internet.
• Available across the globe.
• Performance.
• Scalability.
• Reduced Maintenance costs.
• CAPEX and OPEX reduction for companies.
• No worries about hardware.
• No worries about Storage.
• Cost reduction.
• Power consumption is reduced.

Cloud Hosting Service Models Con’s

• Stability of internet is required.
• Security.
• Data Privacy.
• Downtime.
• vendor closing service.
• Compliance.
• Geographic data laws.

Every thing that has advantages and their own disadvantages also. So there is always mix and match of it. It is up-to the consumer to decide between what to use and what not. Due to the huge growth in this world of cloud computing now it reasonably so easy to get a place for hosting the data and other applications. Many companies are in the process of migration to cloud and some are still not ready to move to cloud. Few are in Hybrid mode using both cloud and on-perm.

Cloud hosting providers like Azure, Google and Amazon are building up data centers across all the regions in the world so as to provide more stable and reliable service in the cloud. They provide all the Cloud Hosting Service Models but all comes with the cost. The billing is the major factor that needs to be looked at as cost is there for all the types of service we use. They charge you for every bits and bytes like the traffic incoming , traffic outgoing but can be managed when you have a plan. Using the servers, networks, firewall, IP, DNS, Load balances and Switches. Storage read and writes, backup, removal of backups, data transfers.

So every thing comes with a price tag which we need to analyze and decide. The name looks fancy but when we get into this world we can see more and more things that we are aware of it. Better look into every details of it and then choose your final hosting provider.