What is Infrastructure as a Service?

Infrastructure as a service(Iaas) describes the distribution of access to a computer infrastructure through one management console. The computer infrastructure will be traditionally hosted offsite and companies will pay per use or account to access the service. Wait a minute.. I am getting all confused. First Paas, Saas and now Iaas. Give me a wider picture of where each of these fit.

Here you go, hope this picture answers all the questions..



Okay fine I get it, but what could one possibly gain from using Iaas?

In a traditional computer space in a company, computer infrastructure included personal machines, a server room full of computer systems, storage space and cooling devices, and specialized staff who can maintain the computer structure. This can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and until recently has been a required part of almost every business. Infrastructure as a service now provides companies with the chance to set up their own computing system without the initial expenditure involved in purchasing it. Workers simply login to their own computer and access everything they need to and site company at a pay per use price.


Looks interesting, can I benefit from Iaas if I want to run my own startup?

The benefits of using infrastructure as a service clearly make this a desirable option for many businesses. For a start, there is no initial cost in setting up computer infrastructure, which saves the company thousands of dollars a year. There are no costly upgrades or maintenance fees, as this is all included within the package price and is taken out of the hands of the company using the service. Staffing costs are kept down, as there is no need for an intensive IT department.

Is the server room in my office for me to play basket ball?

Physical space within the office is maximized, with large server rooms becoming obsolete and workers being able to log onto the infrastructure from their own laptops. This also means that infrastructure is a service makes it easier to work from home or when traveling. There are also environmental benefits, with less companies running their own resource intensive server rooms, and many of the companies who offer infrastructure as a service sell the space in a way that there is very little unused computer space or idle server systems.

The benefits of infrastructure as a service greatly outweigh the negatives, and even some previous issues such as information protection, security and downtime have been completely revolutionized, meaning that those working on infrastructure as a service not only save money, but can also increase their productivity. Many systems are being developed as green virtualization solutions so that clients using IaaS can know that they are doing their best to help the environment while they work.

The idea here is to build a base to understand what VMware vCloud Director(will try to explain in next post) is in simple terms.