What is IaaS? A Complete Guide to Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides on-demand access to IT infrastructure resources like servers, virtual machines (VMs), compute, network, and storage to users over the internet. Third-party providers host these resources, and businesses rent them on a pay-as-you-go basis (pay only for what they use).

IaaS helps reduce hardware costs because acquiring computing resources to run applications or store data takes time and capital. Businesses must go through a lengthy purchasing process, locate suitable space with proper power and cooling, and hire IT professionals to manage everything after deployment.

All this is challenging to manage when demand suddenly increases or the business grows. There’s a risk of running out of capacity or paying for equipment that is not being used. Due to these issues, many  companies turn to IaaS to meet their needs.

How Does IaaS Work?

IaaS operates on virtualization technology. The IaaS provider operates large data centers worldwide, equipped with rows of high-power physical servers, advanced storage systems, and networking equipment.

Instead of dedicating an entire physical machine to a single user, they use a hypervisor on top of the hardware to divide resources into virtual machines(VMs). Each VM acts like a complete computer with its own operating system and applications. This allows maximum resource utilization as multiple users can use resources from the same physical machine.

IaaS creates a clear split in responsibilities. The provider maintains the physical infrastructure and virtualization layer, while customers manage what runs inside their virtual environment. This is known as the Shared Responsibility Model.

Here's a breakdown of the process and the division of responsibilities:

The Provider's Role: The cloud provider owns and maintains the physical hardware, including servers, storage drives, and networking equipment and the virtualization layer. It is also responsible for the physical security, cooling, power, and maintenance of this infrastructure.

The User's Role: As a user, you access these virtualized resources via a network connection using a dashboard or an Application Programming Interface (API). You can then provision virtual machines, configure virtual networks, and attach storage as needed. You don't have to worry about the physical hardware, but you are responsible for managing everything from the operating system upwards, which includes:

• Operating Systems (OS): You choose, install, patch, and manage the OS, like Windows Server, Ubuntu, CentOS, on each of your VMs.
• Middleware: Any database software, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, application servers, or messaging queues, is your responsibility.
• Runtime and Applications: You deploy and maintain your custom applications and their required runtimes.
• Data: You are responsible for the security, integrity, and backup of your own data.
• Networking Configuration: While the provider manages the physical network, you configure your virtual network, including IP addresses, subnets, firewalls (security groups), and load balancers.

Benefits and Advantages of IaaS

IaaS offers various advantages for organizations looking to use cloud computing to meet their IT infrastructure needs. Some of the key benefits  include:

• Cost Savings: A notable benefit is the shift from a Capital Expenditure (CapEx) model to an Operational Expenditure (OpEx) model. Instead of large upfront investments in hardware, you pay a recurring fee for the resources you use. It also means you don’t have to worry about costs for maintaining hardware, power, or cooling.

• Scalability and Flexibility: IaaS provides near-instantaneous elasticity. If you need more computing power for a marketing campaign, you can quickly add more resources (add more VMs). When the campaign is finished, you can reduce your resources just as fast. This model prevents both over-provisioning (paying for idle capacity) and under-provisioning (performance issues due to insufficient resources), and ensures you only pay for what you use.

• Speed and Agility: With IaaS, you can provision new servers or infrastructure components in minutes, instead of waiting weeks or months to purchase and install physical hardware. This helps DevOps teams innovate, test, and deploy applications much faster.

• Enhanced Reliability and Disaster Recovery: IaaS providers run global data centers with built-in redundancy and multiple backups, so their services stay available and dependable. Also, creating a disaster recovery plan is easier and more cost-effective because you can replicate your setup in another location to maintain continuity in the event of an outage.

• Focus on Core Business: Your IT team is freed from routine maintenance tasks by outsourcing the management of physical infrastructure. They can focus on more strategic, value-adding projects instead of replacing failed hard drives or managing data center cooling.

• Security: IaaS providers conduct thorough security measures to protect infrastructure resources and data from unauthorized access, data breaches, and other security dangers. It includes network security, encryption, identity and access management, and certifications to ensure data privacy, integrity, and availability.

Common IaaS Use Cases and Key Providers

Below are some of the most common ways organizations use IaaS to support their operations:

Web and Application Hosting

IaaS provides a scalable and reliable environment to host simple websites to complex web applications like multi-tiered e-commerce platforms. You can use load balancers to distribute traffic, along with auto-scaling, to keep your site performing well even during peak loads.

Testing and Development

Developers can quickly spin up and tear down development and testing environments.This accelerates the software development lifecycle without the need for dedicated physical hardware for temporary tasks.

Big Data Analytics

Processing and analyzing massive datasets (Big Data) for business intelligence, machine learning, or AI model training requires enormous computational power. IaaS allows organizations to rent powerful computing clusters on-demand for tasks like data mining, machine learning, and AI model training without investing in a supercomputer.

Storage, Backup, and Recovery

IaaS offers cost-effective and scalable solutions for data storage. It's also an ideal platform for backup and disaster recovery (DR) solutions, ensuring business continuity in the event of a failure at your primary site.

High-Performance Computing (HPC)

You can use IaaS for demanding scientific and financial workloads, including tasks like protein folding simulations or risk modeling. It gives you on-demand access to supercomputer-level processing power, and you only pay for the resources you use.

Examples of IaaS Providers

The IaaS market is dominated by a few major players, often referred to as "hyperscalers."

• Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS offers a vast portfolio of IaaS services. Its core IaaS offerings are Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) for virtual servers and Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) for object storage.
  
  
• Microsoft Azure: Azure is a strong competitor with deep integration into the Microsoft ecosystem. Its primary IaaS services include Azure Virtual Machines and Azure Blob Storage. It's particularly popular with enterprises that already rely on Microsoft software.
  
  
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP): Known for its expertise in networking, data analytics, Kubernetes, and machine learning, GCP is another major IaaS provider. Its key IaaS products are Google Compute Engine for VMs and Google Cloud Storage.
  
  
• Other Providers: While the big three hold the largest market share, other notable IaaS providers include IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and Alibaba Cloud. Increasingly, regional and niche providers like Digital Ocean, OVHcloud, and Gcore are also gaining popularity.

How to Utilize IaaS with emma?

The emma platform is a holistic multi-cloud management solution that allows you to simplify and optimize your use of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). You can choose any mix of providers and maximize your IaaS utilization through emma’s intelligent recommendations, automated actions, and consistent governance across multiple providers.

• No-code, quick deployment: Launch VMs in minutes without complex scripts.

• Workload portability: Choose the best IaaS provider for each workload based on cost, performance, or compliance. No vendor lock-in.

• Smart instance selection: See instance options side by side, ranked by price, performance, and your policy requirements.

• Optimization built-in: Get real-time rightsizing and scheduling recommendations — and act on them from the same console.

• Governance by default: Enforce cost, compliance, and security policies automatically across all IaaS environments.

As AI and data-driven applications grow, organizations need IaaS that delivers agility without vendor lock-in, so they can scale infrastructure for modern workloads on their terms.