IaaS Virtual Cloud Infrastructure: What it is, Features, Applications

IaaS is a solution for companies who don't have the ability to build and maintain their own data centers. Cloud environment allows businesses to focus on software, strategy, customer service and sales. Routine work on infrastructure maintenance is taken care of by the service.

How IaaS works

A company that provides IaaS leases cloud resources from a provider for its customers or has its own servers. They each get dedicated computing power and disk storage space. Reliable providers' servers are placed so that customers get the highest possible processing speed with minimal latency.

The peculiarity of IaaS is that the client installs operating systems, programs and configures them himself. The provider provides the physical and virtual infrastructure.

What is included in the structure of IaaS:

• Virtual servers to host the software.
• Network settings to connect servers with each other and the Internet.
• Means to deny and grant access to users.
• To save data in case any element of the system fails, a backup option is available.
• Large amount of space in the cloud storage and fast access to data.
• Internet network resources: routers, communicators, load balancing.

IaaS virtual infrastructure can be deployed in several ways depending on the needs of the client company:

• A public cloud implies that space in cloud storage is shared among users. Such an environment is suitable for development and testing.
• A private cloud is an environment built for a single customer, given their system architecture needs.
• The hybrid infrastructure is partly hosted on the client's server and partly in the cloud. This model is suitable if there is not enough capacity of enterprise servers or you need to expand them for a while.

Application of IaaS infrastructure

IaaS service is used for such tasks:

• Development and testing of IT products in the cloud infrastructure allows you to quickly test many hypotheses, test programs in different environments.
• Analytics and accounting of large amounts of information.
• Hosting sites in the cloud allows you to quickly expand capacity for new tasks that require high performance.
• Create large data backups, etc.

Startups and small companies deploy cloud IaaS infrastructure to work entirely through this service. This is a significant cost savings, because renting a cloud environment is cheaper than buying equipment.

Large businesses use IaaS for testing during program development and peak periods. For example, a large online store can rent cloud infrastructure for holidays, promotions, when the number of customers and orders increases significantly. Then there is no need to invest in expensive equipment, which will periodically stand idle.