What Is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

If you've ever wondered what the next step in cloud computing would be, we've got it! Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivers a full compute stack — including servers, storage, networking and operating software — as an abstract, virtualized construct. In other words: We provide your data center as if it were a cloud. It means you can use our resources to run your applications on any hardware you want — whether in our data center or yours — without worrying about your Infrastructure's inner workings. You can also scale up or down as needed, only paying for what you need. With Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), you can get precisely what you need—and nothing more. You're not locked into using a particular operating system or even a specific version of that operating system. Instead, you get access to just enough virtualized hardware and software so that you can focus on what matters: building your product. Many people have been talking about IaaS lately, and getting lost in the jargon is easy. We're here to explain what it is and why you should care. IaaS stands for Infrastructure as a Service, which is a fancy way of saying that you no longer have to deal with the hardware. IaaS grew from the broader conversion from traditional hardware-oriented data centers to virtualized and cloud-based Infrastructure. By removing the fixed relationship between hardware and operating software, and middleware, organizations found that they could scale data environments quickly and efficiently to meet workload demands. In the old days, enterprises used to have to worry about hardware infrastructure. They had to buy servers and storage devices and configure and maintain them. Then came IaaS! IaaS is when you outsource all that stuff. You let someone else worry about it for you. You can use your time and resources to focus on what's important: your business model. When the time comes to scale up? Just wait until they tell you they're ready!