Cloud service models are the foundation of modern cloud computing. Whether you’re a cloud beginner or a seasoned IT professionals, understanding these models is crucial for leveraging the cloud’s full potential.
This article provides a clear explanation with example of the most common cloud service models: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, DaaS, APIaaS, XaaS, FaaS and more.
PaaS – Platform as a Service
PaaS provides you with a ready-made environment for your applications, including servers, storage, databases, and platform management tools. You just need to deploy your application code and start enjoying the benefits.
The underline PaaS infrastructure (networking, firewall, hypervisor, data center, etc.) is managed by the PaaS provider.
Learn how to build your own PaaS.
Benefits of using PaaS:
- Faster development and delivery
- Create/Deploy applications on the fly
- Easily Upgradable
- Provides backup, recovery and data security
- Easily accessible from multiple locations (by multiple teams)
A good example of PaaS is App Engine from Google Cloud.
SaaS – Software as a Service
SaaS provides you with a ready-to-use application, including all the necessary infrastructure and software functionalities. You simply subscribe to the service offered and start using it.
For example, Gmail, where you exchange emails without worrying about what is happening in the background. All you have to do is type your email, and it gets delivered to the recipients you want to deliver it. You are not concerned about how the platform works, what are the security concerns, what if the server goes down, or where is the mail getting stored, it’s none of your concern.
The service providers are providing you a complete software or an application in the form of service, that is why this architecture is called Software as a Service.
SaaS model benefits:
- On-demand service
- Independent platform
- No need to install anything
- Resource managed and maintained by the vendor
- Available 24×7 with customer support
Freshdesk as a helpdesk software is a good example of SaaS offered by Freshworks.
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS provides you with access to on-demand computing resources like virtual servers, storage, networking, firewall to build your own cloud environment. This gives you freedom to choose your operating systems, storage type, machine type, etc.
Most of the IaaS offer scalable solution which allow you to build future-ready application environment. The best thing is, IaaS pricing is mostly pay-as-you-go (PAYG) which means no upfront investment and freedom to move between IaaS providers.
Let me explain it with an analogy.
For example, suppose you rent a house, now the owner gives you a house and says use it the way you want to and pay me the rent. So, you are paying the owner for the house, and when you get inside the house, you realize that it only has a bed and a table. Apart from that, you need to put in the kitchen utensils, and you need to set up the house the way you want to use it, and then you can go ahead and use that house. Basically, you are setting up your infrastructure.
IaaS model benefits:
- Easy to scale up or down
- Rented / licensed / pay as you go
- GUI or CLI-based easy access
- Cost-effective solutions to build and manage application infrastructure
Ex – Vultr, Kamatera, AWS, GCP
AWS, GCP, Kamatera, DigitalOcean are a good example of IaaS provider.
APIaaS – API as a Service
APIaaS helps developers and businesses to speed up the deliverable and offer new functionalities in the applications by integrating ready-made APIs. This allows developers to focus on using APIs to enhance their applications, rather than spending time and money in getting into API development and management.
APIaaS benefits:
- Quick to market
- No or very low initial investment
- No need to worry about managing APIs infrastructure
- Scalable and switchable
Bright Data, APILayer, Siterelic are good examples of APIaaS providers.
AaaS – Analytics as a Service
As you have guessed already, AaaS provides analytics software over cloud as subscription model. You can use AaaS for predictive analytics, data analytics, and business analytics, to find insights and trends on the business data. It can clean, analyze, and store insights from big data in a scalable and cost-effective manner.
Analytics software is resource intensive, and hosting them in-house would cost an upfront investment and require good skills to manage it. It is wise to leverage existing tools to test your use case. Explore predictive analytics tools and BI analytics software, most of them offer a FREE trial which is good enough to give you an idea what suits your requirement.
BaaS – Backend as a Service
BaaS takes care of the backend services of an application, so, the developers can focus only on writing and maintaining the frontend side of the application. It provides backend services like database management, user authentication, cloud storage, push notifications, etc.
Firebase is an example of BaaS provider, but there are more discussed in backend solutions for web and mobile applications article.
DaaS – Data as a Service
DaaS term is a confusing one. It is referred as Data as a Service and sometime Desktop as a Service (will discuss in below section).
DaaS (Data as a Service) pre-aggregated and processed data through the cloud, eliminating the need for costly infrastructure and specialized skills. This allows you to quickly gain the insights you need, whether it’s for investment decisions, product development, or customer engagement.
MongoDB Atlas is an example of DaaS provider.
DaaS – Desktop as a Service
Desktop as a Service (DaaS) helps business to get a virtual computer on demand for their employees and contractors to login and access from anywhere over the Internet. It improves data security and enhances remote productivity.
One common myth is that virtual desktop is slow, but it is not. The solution is here to get the desktop in near to the user’s location. For example, if your team is located in the India, you should get a virtual desktop hosted in New Delhi, Mumbai or major cities in India.
V2 Cloud is DaaS provider and has datacenters in 20 locations.
DBaaS – Database as a Service
DBaaS provides managed database so you don’t have to worry about installing, updating, applying security patches, cluster setup, etc. Managing database requires specialized skills and if you lack or don’t have time, it is good to leverage DBaaS where you connect to database using JDBC string/URL provided by DBaaS platforms.
Benefits of using DBaaS:
- Reduces operational cost
- Easier to deploy and manage
- Pay for what you use
- Automates database operations
- Clustering setup in minutes
- High-availability across regions
ScaleGrid is a popular choice as DBaaS for MySql, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, Greenplum and Microsoft SQL Server.
FaaS – Function as a Service
FaaS helps to remove the complexities of servers and infrastructure and provides a serverless architecture. You can focus on the business logic, and everything in the background is taken care of by FaaS providers – all you have to think about is code development and how you want to trigger (HTTP, event-driven, cron, etc.) the functions.
FaaS benefits:
- Billing based on usage
- Faster development
- Scalable – no need to worry about servers provisioning
- Faster execution, usually in milliseconds
AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Cloudflare Workers Azure Functions are leading example of FaaS providers. The majority of providers support JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Rust and Go languages.
SECaaS – Security as a Service
SECaaS offers cloud-based security where application and infrastructure are protected by a cloud-based security provider (CBSP). A simple example of Security as a Service is antivirus software like Norton, Avast, McAfee or firewall like SUCURI, NordLayer, Perimeter 81.
Other security services like anti-malware, firewall, penetration testing, intrusion detection, authentication, spam filtering, DNS filtering, zero-trust network, and Identity and Access Management (IAM) are a part of SECaaS.
XaaS – Anything as a Service
XaaS offers a wide range of cloud-based services to help businesses reduce cost, transform legacy infrastructure and offer new functionality to users.
The XaaS model is applied across various industries, from IT, banking, and finance, to healthcare, manufacturing, and education.
Some of the benefits of XaaS are:
- Businesses can use XaaS to buy exactly what they need from vendors and pay for the resources they use, unlike traditional systems.
- IT companies can streamline their operations effectively using XaaS and free up their resources and capabilities for innovation.
- XaaS can help them become more agile and easily implement digital transformation.
- XaaS enables modern businesses to adapt easily to rapidly changing market demands with relevant applications and solutions, and enjoy the flexibility of scaling up or down based on their requirements.
Conclusion
The above popular cloud service models are often you will come across while working with cloud solutions. You can try the examples I shared to experience the platform.