As part of the IT technology landscape transformation, organizations are migrating from legacy systems to cloud computing. The benefits of cloud computing are becoming well known in terms of cost savings, scalability and flexibility. The question is not whether to move to the cloud, but how to identify the right path to the cloud for your business.
There are four types of cloud service models. For many companies, their first move into utilizing the cloud is via the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model.
What is IaaS?
As the name suggests, IaaS provides the fundamental infrastructure resources to businesses on-demand over the Internet. IaaS is made up of a collection of physical and virtualized resources that provide consumers with the basic building blocks needed to run applications and workloads in the cloud.
Looking Back
To understand IaaS better, it helps to take a look back at how companies managed computing prior to the ubiquitous cloud services we have now.
- In the past, as companies grew and required more computing power and capacity, they had to fully manage their entire computing stack including the basic infrastructure:
- Storage: hard drives
- Networking: routers and connectivity to the Internet
- Servers: memory, motherboards, CPUs
- Virtualization: software allocating resources to virtual machines and environments
This management went all the way down to the cooling and power for server rooms and the networking cable and fiber that ran through the walls.
IaaS Benefits
IaaS enables businesses to turn-over these infrastructure responsibilities to a cloud service provider delivering these top benefits:
- Cost Savings
Cost savings is one of the main advantages of IaaS. Companies do not have to spend money purchasing and maintaining hardware and networking equipment. IaaS pricing is also adjustable based on the capacity needs of each client, avoiding overpaying for resources that you don’t need and won’t use. - Scalability and Flexibility
One of the most significant benefits of IaaS is the ability to scale up and down quickly in response to an enterprise’s requirements. IaaS providers generally have the latest, most powerful storage, servers and networking technology to accommodate their customers’ needs. This on-demand scalability provides added flexibility and greater agility to respond to changing opportunities and requirements. This is especially helpful in building and dismantling test and development environments, which greatly benefit from this increased speed and agility. - Faster Time to Market
Without the time and capital needed to set up infrastructure, especially start-ups and small businesses can move forward quickly to bring products to market faster. - Support for Data Recovery and Business Continuity
Many disaster recovery plans are expensive and unwieldy, and businesses often need to have multiple disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) plans to address their different locations. IaaS provides combined plans for DR and BC, reducing costs and increasing manageability. If a disaster occurs, IaaS is available to quickly and efficiently provide access to your systems and data via the Internet. - Focus on Business Growth
IaaS frees up your time and resources, giving you the ability to focus on growing your business vs. using your bandwidth for continually analyzing and making smaller technology decisions.
According to a recent survey by Gartner, over 80% of CIOs worldwide are considering IaaS as the next viable option to migrate their infrastructure. We’re here to help you figure out if IaaS or other cloud services are right for you.
