Forms of Cloud Computing

Using infrastructure (server, data storage, etc.) as a service provides possibility to connect to IT resources and start using them instantly.  This type of services is called IaaS. IaaS eliminates the need for the user to invest into hardware as the payment model requires paying only for the actually used resources and the service itself is easily scalable.

IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service. Most commonly known companies providing this type of services are „Amazon“ EC2 and S3.

Another service type – SaaS is based on ready-to-use applications that can be accessed by the users via internet. Users do not need to care about deployment of IT infrastructure, software updates, etc. Services of this type are also scalable and the application itself is designed to “connect” to additional technical resources according to the changing needs.

SaaS - Software as a Service. Examples: Google Apps – e-mail, time and resource planning software, Salesforce CRM solution.

One more form of Cloud Computing services is software development platforms, also called PaaS. The main difference from SaaS is that the services/products are not ready-to-use in this case. These platforms are designed for developers and integrators who use platforms for custom made application development. Platforms can dynamically change the scope of IT infrastructure as well.

PaaS - Platform as a Service. Programmers are well familiar with such platforms as Salesforce or Google App Engine.