What is IaaS? Infrastructure as a service explained

Modern applications need computing infrastructure that can scale with varying workloads. With traditional infrastructure, companies have to purchase, maintain, and plan capacity for physical hardware. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) eliminates this bottleneck by enabling organizations to shift computing resources to a flexible cloud provider. 

The IaaS service provider manages the data center and underlying hardware, while the customer controls the operating system, applications, configurations, and the data running on the allocated resources.

This guide explains what IaaS is, how it works, various types available, its benefits and use cases, who the major providers are, and how organizations can put it into practice.  

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What Is IaaS? Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model in which a provider delivers virtualized computing resources over a network. These resources typically include compute, storage, and networking.

With traditional IT infrastructure, an organization may need to purchase servers, install them in a data center, maintain networking equipment, and plan capacity months in advance. IaaS replaces much of this physical setup with resources that can be configured through the cloud.

For example, a company launching a web application could create virtual machines, attach storage, configure a virtual network, and deploy its application through an IaaS platform. The company pays for the resources it uses instead of purchasing the physical servers itself.

IaaS gives organizations more control than SaaS (Software as a Service) while avoiding much of the hardware management associated with traditional infrastructure.

How does Infrastructure as a Service work?

IaaS works by turning physical computing resources into configurable services that customers can provision and manage when required.

The underlying architecture

An IaaS platform is built on physical data centers containing servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and other hardware resources. The provider pools these resources and exposes them through a software layer.

Organizations can then request resources such as virtual machines, storage volumes, IP addresses, and virtual networks without physically installing the underlying hardware. These resources become part of a cloud architecture where compute, storage, networking, security, and other services are arranged to support an application or workload. 

The provider generally manages the physical infrastructure and data center, while the customer manages the operating system, applications, configurations, and other resources running on the IaaS environment. The exact division of responsibility varies between providers and services.

Virtualization, automation, and containerization

Virtualization technology is one of the technologies that makes IaaS possible. It allows a physical server to host multiple virtual machines, so different workloads can run in isolated environments on the same underlying hardware.

Automation allows infrastructure to be created, configured, scaled, and removed through APIs or infrastructure-as-code tools instead of being manually configured each time.

Containers can also run on IaaS infrastructure. They package an application and its dependencies into portable units, helping applications run consistently across different environments. Containers are commonly used in cloud native application architectures, where applications are designed to run across dynamic cloud environments. 

What are the types of IaaS resources?

IaaS resources generally fall into three main categories: compute, storage, and networking.

Compute

Compute provides the processing capacity required to run applications and workloads. Resources can be selected based on CPU, memory, workload type, and required application performance. 

Organizations can provision additional compute capacity when demand increases and release it when those resources are no longer required.

Storage

Cloud storage provides space for application data, files, backups, databases, and other information. It can also support applications that store large volumes of data, including unstructured data generated by applications, users, and connected systems.

Providers generally offer different storage models for different workloads, including block, file, and object storage. The appropriate option depends on how applications need to access, manage, and store data.

Storage requirements can also vary according to performance, durability, access frequency, retention requirements, and the amount of data storage required.

Networking

Networking connects applications, virtual machines, storage, and external services.

These resources allow organizations to control how workloads communicate with one another, connect to end users, and interact with external systems. Network configuration can also affect application performance and availability. 

How is IaaS different from PaaS and SaaS?

IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS are different cloud service models based largely on how much of the technology stack the provider manages.

With IaaS, the provider manages the physical infrastructure and virtualization layer, while the customer manages the operating system, application code, configurations, and data. This gives organizations complete control over more of the technology stack than managed application services provide. 

Platform as a Service (PaaS) moves more infrastructure and platform to the provider. The platform manages the underlying infrastructure and runtime environment, allowing developers to focus more on building and deploying applications rather than managing servers.

SaaS goes further by providing a complete application. The provider manages the infrastructure, platform, application, and most of the underlying operations, while users primarily configure and use the software.

In short, IaaS provides infrastructure control, PaaS reduces the infrastructure management required from customers, and SaaS provides a ready-to-use application.

What are the benefits of Infrastructure as a Service?

IaaS can simplify infrastructure by allowing organizations to provision, scale, and manage resources without purchasing and maintaining physical hardware. 

• Reduced capital expenditure: Organizations do not need to purchase physical servers and networking equipment upfront. Instead, infrastructure costs are treated as operational expenses based on the resources consumed.
• Scalability and flexibility: Resources can be increased or reduced as demand changes, making IaaS useful for workloads with unpredictable traffic or seasonal demand.
• Improved availability and resilience: Providers offer infrastructure designed with redundancy and availability options that can support high availability and reduce dependencies on a single infrastructure component. Organizations can also apply appropriate security measures and cloud security controls to protect workloads and data. 
• Faster speed to market: New infrastructure can be provisioned much faster than physical hardware can be purchased, installed, and configured.
• Access to a range of infrastructure and tools: Cloud platforms provide access to different compute configurations, storage technologies, networking services, APIs, and automation capabilities.
• Backup and disaster recovery: Cloud environments can support backups, replication, and disaster recovery strategies across different infrastructure locations.

What are the use cases for Infrastructure as a Service?

The model supports a range of workloads, including application development, testing, migrating applications, and web hosting. 

Development and testing environments

Development teams can provision separate environments for development, testing, and staging without purchasing dedicated hardware for each environment.  

Temporary environments can also be created for a specific software development project and removed once testing is complete. Creating and removing temporary environments reduces the need to maintain infrastructure that is only needed temporarily.

Data-intensive workloads

Cloud infrastructure can support applications that process large volumes of data, including big data analytics and other data-intensive workloads. Organizations can provision additional compute and storage resources as data volumes and processing requirements change. 

Lift-and-shift migration

IaaS is commonly used for lift-and-shift migrations, where existing applications are moved from on-premises infrastructure to cloud infrastructure with relatively few changes.

A lift-and-shift approach can be useful when an organization wants to move away from physical data centers before modernizing its applications. Once workloads are running in the cloud, teams can gradually adopt newer architectures or services where appropriate.

Web and application hosting

Websites and applications can run on IaaS compute resources, while storage and networking resources support their data and connectivity needs. 

IaaS can also help organizations handle temporary increases in application demand. For example, cloud bursting allows workloads to use additional cloud capacity when demand exceeds the available capacity of a private or on-premises environment.

Who are the major IaaS providers?

Several major cloud providers offer IaaS solutions as part of broader cloud platforms that include databases, analytics, security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and other services.

• Amazon Web Services (AWS): Provides compute, storage, networking, and other infrastructure services through its cloud platform.
• Microsoft Azure: Provides virtual machines, storage, networking, and infrastructure management services.
• Google Cloud (GCP): Provides compute, storage, networking, and other cloud infrastructure services.
• IBM Cloud: Offers virtual servers, bare metal infrastructure, storage, and networking.
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Provides compute, storage, networking, and infrastructure services for enterprise workloads.
• Alibaba Cloud: Provides compute, storage, networking, and other cloud infrastructure services.

The right provider depends on factors such as workload requirements, geographic availability, pricing, compliance needs, existing technology investments, and the services an organization needs.

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How can teams implement Infrastructure as a Service?

Moving to IaaS involves more than creating virtual machines. Organizations need to understand their workloads, dependencies, security requirements, and expected resource consumption before moving production systems to the cloud. These decisions are often part of broader digital transformation initiatives. 

Identify requirements

Start by assessing applications, compute requirements, storage needs, network architecture, security controls, availability requirements, and expected traffic.

Identify which workloads can move directly to the cloud and which may need architectural changes first.

Plan team and responsibilities

IaaS environments can involve cloud engineers, developers, security teams, system administrators, DevOps engineers, and platform teams. Clearly defining responsibilities helps teams manage IT resources, security controls, deployment workflows, and operational requirements. 

As infrastructure becomes more complex, an Internal Developer Platform (IDP) can give developers self-service access to infrastructure and deployment workflows. This reduces the need for developers to manage every underlying component themselves.

Choose an IaaS vendor

Compare providers based on infrastructure availability, pricing, regions, security capabilities, compliance requirements, integrations, support, and the services applications need.

It is also important to consider total infrastructure cost rather than comparing only the price of compute resources. Storage, network traffic, monitoring, backups, and other services can contribute to the final bill.

Plan and execute migration

Create a migration plan covering application dependencies, data transfer, testing, security, rollback procedures, and production cutover.

Larger migrations can be completed in stages. Moving lower-risk workloads first allows teams to test the new environment before migrating business-critical applications.

Organizations that require greater control over infrastructure and data location may also consider a private cloud deployment as part of the overall infrastructure strategy.

IaaS in practice

IaaS gives organizations access to scalable computing resources without requiring them to own the physical infrastructure behind them. It is commonly used for application hosting, development and testing, migrations, and workloads with changing resource requirements. 

In simple words, IaaS is a cloud model for renting infrastructure such as compute, storage, and networking while retaining control over the software and workloads that run on it.