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Basics of Infrastructure as a Service & Choosing Best IaaS for Businesses

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Published By Kumar Raj
Aswin Vijayan
Approved By Aswin Vijayan
Published On May 5th, 2020
Reading Time 8 Minutes Reading

infrastructure as a service in cloud computing

Infrastructure as a Service – Some Major Queries:

In this blog post, you will get to know about the answers of following queries:

  • What exactly is Infrastructure in Business?
  • Why is IT Infrastructure important for Businesses?
  • What are the benefits of IT Infrastructure & how does it affect Businesses?
  • What does infrastructure as a service mean in simple terms?
  • What resources are provided by infrastructure as a service?
  • Who is Infrastructure as a Service Providers?
  • Which IaaS Service is Best for You?

Cloud Computing Infrastructure is a highly requisite service in present era to access & manage common businesses needs on Cloud. There are large number of queries that comes up in the minds of business owners & startups to choose which one is best for them. In the next few minutes, you will understand some Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) basics & the benefits offered by them.

What Exactly is IT Infrastructure in Business?

Business Infrastructure can be considered as a basic requirements & services needed to run a business. Generally, we understand Infrastructure as a Physical Hardware but in reality, basic software & services can also be considered as an Infrastructure. These Infrastructure needs can be required in various domains:

  • IT Services like Service Desk, Support, Security & Data Backup
  • Computing Tools like OS, DBMS, Firewall, Computing Platform, Virtual Machines, Email Management Tool, or Content Management System
  • Basic Networking Services, Routers & Switches
  • Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Management in case of Data Loss
  • Transportation Services
  • Data Centers & other Facilities
  • Energy & Power Management like Backup Generators

As from above we can easily understand that these all are the basic requirements to run & manage any business.

Why is IT Infrastructure important for Businesses?

“7 out of 10 organizations believed that a sophisticated IT Infrastructure is need of the time to take competitive advantages & optimize Businesses Productivity.” – IT Infrastructure Conversation Study.

There is no doubt in previous time, some businesses are not understanding the value of IT Infrastructure. The prime reason is that they don’t find or think about a reason to why investing in Infrastructure. But, with the time as the market grows & a competitive environment emerges, it becomes a necessary condition for them to invest in IT infrastructure needs. Business requires to store & access large amount of data, security tools like Firewall to protect from any external threat, communication channels to connect with clients & customers, uninterrupted Power Supply generators to run machines or Virtual Machines to perform Compute task in a virtual environment. These all issues can be addresses directly through investing in IT Infrastructure.

What are the Benefits of IT Infrastructure & How does it Affect Businesses?

Organizations are moving to Robust IT Infrastructure to grow their businesses. There are several advantages & benefits of IT Infrastructure on Cloud that helps the Businesses to increase Business Efficiency & Productivity.

  1. Easily Setup, Scalable, & Flexible with all Business Requirements
  2. Integrated System with Automation, Quick Deployment, & Maintenance
  3. Reach Out Clients & Customers by Increasing Global Presence
  4. Advanced Security System like Firewall, Identity Management, Auditing etc.
  5. Optimized Resource Allocation & Huge Reduction in Managed Investments
  6. Quick, High Performance, & Reliable to Handle Concurrent Requests
  7. Avoid Pain of Business Interruption & Upgrades
  8. Continuous Delivery of Resources
  9. Manage IT Infrastructure like Updates, Backups, & other Maintenance
  10. Reach out Various Platforms like Mobiles, Laptops, Android, Tablets, Macs

These all above are only a few advantages that comes up while accessing IT Infrastructure Resources.

What does Infrastructure as a Service Mean in Simple Terms?

When we talk about Cloud Computing, one can divide it into three major parts:

  • IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
  • PaaS (Platform as a Service)
  • SaaS (Software as a Service)

Generally, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), can also be referred as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). IaaS is a model which is a way of Virtually Delivering Computer Resources like Networking, Hardware, or Storage services. Major things that can also be included may be like OS & Virtualization Technologies to manage infrastructure resources. It becomes the best choice for the Startups to rent resources as needed instead of installing their own Data Centers. There is no doubt that investing in installation of Infrastructure resources for small companies is very challenging. One can obtain & use these resources to develop, run & test applications.

The biggest advantage of Infrastructure as a Service technique is that one can easily scale up or scale down according to requirements. Organizations only needed to pay for the Infrastructure services which he was using for that particular time. One can avoid any expense or complexity of purchasing their own Servers with various Datacenter Infrastructure. The Cloud Infrastructure providers, will manage all the Infrastructure needs which you can purchase, install, configure, or manage their own software like OS or applications.

What Resources are Provided by Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Many can use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to fulfil all the Infrastructure needs for a Business or any Enterprise. The cost-effective & scalable model enables the organizations to manage & properly optimize resources. There are large number of resources that are provided on Cloud Computing as IaaS like as:

  1. Virtualization
  2. Data Center Physical Plant
  3. Networking Firewalls or Security
  4. Servers & Storage

Some of the Major advantages that comes along with this IaaS solution are:

  • Automatic Administrative Tasks
  • Continuity and Disaster Recovery
  • Dynamic Scaling
  • Eliminate Costs
  • Main Focus
  • Fast Innovations
  • Increase Stability, Reliability and Support
  • Virtualization of the Platform
  • Better Security
  • Internet Connectivity

IaaS can also be used for many Business Scenarios like:

  1. Test and Develop Applications
  2. Backup and Restore Important Data
  3. Analysis and Data Strategy
  4. Hosting Website
  5. High Performance Computing

List of Common Infrastructure as a Service Providers:

There are large number of IaaS Providers & some major of them are listed below:

  • Microsoft Azure
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • IBM Cloud
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
  • DigitalOcean
  • Linode
  • Google Compute Engine
  • Rackspace
  • GoGrid
  • Vultr

Which IaaS Provider is Best for You?

The equipment’s & physical components are managed by IaaS providers, who hire or purchase the specific services they require. The term rent or purchase usually pays “pay as you go“, giving you lots of flexibility and ease of growth. Businesses use IaaS cloud as a means of easily scaling new or existing applications to a wider audience. The only problem users face nowadays are how to identify which IaaS Provider is best for their Business Model.

  1. Amazon AWS: AWS is one of the oldest & most popular IaaS. Some of the major reasons of its popularity are Security Capabilities, Auditing, IT Architectures, Scalable Resources, Rich Controls, Web Applications, Big Data, Backup & Storage or Disaster Recovery.
  2. Microsoft Azure: Easily build, deploy or manage applications on Microsoft’s Public Cloud. It is very easy to use, with large number of Administrative Tools, & above all can be used on all OS devices.
  3. Digital Ocean: If you are developer, then no doubt prefers to choose DigitalOcean. It will enable the developers to control Virtual Servers on the Cloud. Users can easily Setup or Deploy it in seconds with Simple APIs. With a fast network, SSD Storage devices, Highly available storage, & pre-build open Source applications in a range of standard Droplet Prices.
  4. Rackspace Open Cloud: Rackspace also comes up with a Cloud Computing Service Provider used for building Webs & applications. It consists of multiple type of Cloud i.e. Public, Private, Hybrid or multi-cloud in a very easy to use environment.
  5. Google Compute Engine: Google also comes up with its IaaS platform in a very scalable, high-performance Virtual Machine Environment to compute large-scale workloads. It consists Google Infrastructure Backup, Fast & Efficient Networking, High-Performance, Environmental Global Friendly Network, Flexible as well as very Scalable & can be upgraded or downgraded according to requirements.
  6. IBM Cloud: IBM Cloud or often we know it as IBM SmartCloud is a very fast performing IaaS solution. This is no doubt best for the organizations who manages large numbers of developers & testers. A very powerful, secured & combination of great software collaboration for enterprises with Good management.

Final Words:

In the above article, we have discussed very much about what are important & basic points of IT Infrastructure. If you are also looking for more information regarding best IaaS providers, you can also get in touch with our Experts at NetForChoice. I hope now you have got all the answers of the questions that were running in your mind before owning any IaaS service.