Decoding cloud computing “as a service” lingo
February 16, 2012
As technology moves more towards a subscriber model you might see the “aaS” suffix placed after a variety of letters.
The most common terms currently utilised under the “cloud” banner are:
– Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): servers, networks, disk space and other IT infrastructure
– Platform as a Service (PaaS): environments where software companies can build applications without the need for infrastructure
– Software as a Service (SaaS): applications and software solutions that are ready for immediate use
Recently I was asked the question about whether a website classifies as SaaS. The answer is both yes and no – as it comes down to perspectives…
If I am the owner of “Loryan’s Widgets” and have an online shopfront for customers to purchase my widgets I can realistically use any of the “aaS” models. So how does that work?
At a basic level I can choose the SaaS route and find a provider who will provide me with a website, eCommerce system and payment gateway. In this scenario I am subscribing to the entire solution and all I need to purchase is the service from the provider. Within minutes I can be entering in my stock items, product descriptions, pricing and start receiving payments.
With SaaS there is a much higher ROI due to speed and ease of which I can be operational.
If for some reason I required more customisation than the SaaS solution provided I may choose to PaaS route. This would require me to have access to a software development team who can program the functionality that I require on the platform that I choose. It would take longer before I could be operational and seeing any transactions coming through.
With PaaS there is a higher investment initially, as well as responsibility for ongoing monitoring & management of the website & eCommerce solution we have built.
However if I wanted complete control of the entire website, its software, all back-end and basic software functionality I would choose the IaaS model. This allows my team to control the operating system that my website sits on and install whatever software they want.
With IaaS there is also a higher initial investment however now we are also responsible for maintaining the underlying operating system that our website software sits on.
To put all this in context: my company www.xstran.com created a niche piece of software to work with Microsoft Lync Online. During the development we tested it on virtual PCs & servers run from Amazon’s Elastic Compute platform (IaaS) . The Xstran website is run off WordPress which is provided by our web host (SaaS). When customers choose to purchase a product it will connect to a license key generator application we developed running on Microsoft Windows Azure (PaaS) which then also connects to PayPal (PaaS) to collect payment.
From my perspective I am using all three types of “as a service” models to deliver an end-to-end solution.
From the perspective of my customer they are simply browsing a website and buying a widget.