“To the Cloud!” I hear that statement or something like it everyday. I admit my circle of friends/coworkers is a bit nerdy but it happens even with those in the “know”. If you have been paying attention for the last couple of years, you have heard something about the “Cloud”. Ever since the Windows 7 launched, Microsoft mentions the Cloud in every commercial. Apple went so far as to base their latest update to their iDevices around the “Cloud”. If you’re involved with IT then you know that every vendor you have keeps talking about their cloud offerings… endlessly. But… what is it?
One would assume that since every vendor has a Cloud offering, there must be clear/common/concise definition for what the “Cloud” is. That assumption would be wrong. So for this series of posts on the cloud, we start with what the cloud is.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS is probably what most people think of when they hear about the Cloud. Wikipedia defines SaaS as “a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally (typically in the (Internet) cloud) and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.” Simply put, the software and storage are out there somewhere on the internet, not on your computer. Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail are some of the most recognizable SaaS service in the email space. Google has a whole host of SaaS products that they give away for free. (In addition to Gmail, think Google Calendar, Google Docs, Picasa and for that matter Search.) These were always considered consumer products but in the last year, many vendors have begun pushing their cloud based products towards the Enterprise.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Describing PaaS is a little more difficult as the concept is a bit more abstract. Think of PaaS like this, it is a platform with which to develop and run your own application. The platform “stack” will usually provide web services, database management, storage, collaboration and application life-cycle management tools. In this model, you don’t get to pick your database server, web server and other software, the provider usually has the platform built and you use what they already have available. The simplest example of PaaS is Yahoo’s Store offering. Yahoo Store gives you hosting for a site, a shopping cart and credit card processing. You have to build the site, manage the product, import that data into the database and selling the product. PaaS is usually a pay as you go service model based on transaction volume. The more you use, the more you pay.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS goes by many other names… Virtual Private Server, Virtual Machine (VM), Dedicated Servers, Co-location and more. Imagine picking up your existing server/infrastructure or building out your new infrastructure on someone else’s hardware located somewhere other than where you are (you can do this on your own hardware at your own facility too – more on that in a future post). Basically, a hosting company provides a set of physical or virtual servers, switches, routers and storage for you to run your operating system and application. You still do your own patching, upgrades and monitor your servers and applications. The most well known IaaS offerings are from companies like Rackspace and Hostway.
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If you have read this far, we now have a common understanding of the basic underpinnings of the three types of cloud offerings. If you’re thinking “haven’t I heard of all of this before?” you’re ahead of the game. Post two of this five part series will dive deeper into SaaS. Stay tuned…
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