What is Infrastructure as a Service? IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service, often abbreviated as IaaS, is a term for a cloud computing service offering. You may have heard of other core terms used to describe common cloud-based services, such as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS), but I'll be writing more on those in future articles. 

The aim of IaaS is to provide businesses with virtual computing resources over the public internet rather than needing IT equipment such as servers and networking equipment on-site. So, rather than the business having to buy, configure, and manage physical servers and network devices, they're provided and managed by the cloud provider instead. You then build your own virtual servers, virtual networks, and applications on top as and when you need them (on-demand), usually via a pay-as-you-go basis. 

Typically, businesses will consider using Infrastructure as a services for one or more of the following reasons. 

• Reduce the need to rent data centre space or IT server rooms in their office, cutting the associated costs. Disaster recovery infrastructure is often a good candidate for IaaS migration, negating the need for a self-managed physical data centre on standby. 

• Save money on physical IT hardware spend. Most physical IT hardware becomes end-of-life every 3-5 years, and renewals or extending maintenance contracts can be time-consuming and expensive. For the finance people amongst you, cloud services facilitate the move from a CapEx to an OpEx-based spend. 

• Scale IT resources as and when needed and quickly. 

• Having the underlying IT infrastructure managed by a third party can help use IT staff more effectively. This allows IT staff to spend time adding value to the business elsewhere. 

Many businesses are used to the concepts of virtualisation within IT, where several virtual servers running business applications run on a physical server to increase the utilisation of the asset. IaaS can be considered an extension of that, but with the cloud provider managing the physical servers and networks underneath the hood. It's a core reason why many businesses use IaaS as their first step into working with cloud computing and expand from there rather than just jumping into the unknown and moving directly to more advanced cloud offerings. 

What should I consider when thinking about IaaS services?

This boils down to needs and requirements.  All the leading providers will offer scalability, a variety of IaaS performance and baseline security options, reliability and availability guarantees for uptime, along with varying levels of regulatory compliance, all of which are very important and need thought. However, from my experience, the following are the ones I'd like to point out further that should be high on the list of considerations. 

• Cost Management

For anyone who has already dabbled with cloud services, you'll know it is straightforward to create IaaS infrastructure at will on any of the vendor's platforms the second you've registered a credit card for billing purposes. But everything you make has a cost, so you'll want to clearly define a management strategy to monitor and control cloud spending and put controls in place to limit 'who can do what'. Plan and review regularly, or face a bit of a shock when a large IaaS bill lands in your inbox. 

• Network Access and Speed

You need to consider how your users will connect to IaaS infrastructure in the cloud. Typically, network latency, bandwidth, security, and redundancy are high on the list of things to consider, especially if you're moving or migrating existing virtual servers from your office where your users are located. "It's not as fast as it was before" or "I can't access it at all" aren't what you want to hear. 

• Vendor Lock-In

Nobody wants to be stuck in the same place forever, so evaluate factors such as portability, and determine any limitations in being able to move your data off the cloud platform when you need too.

• Business Process Changes

Working with IaaS and cloud technologies in general often mean changes to existing business processes, which in-turn affects people. Throughout my career, I've experienced places where IT isn't well aligned to the overall business goals. Moving to cloud computing services such as IaaS can be a good opportunity for realignment. 

Overall, IaaS enables businesses to use virtual compute resources in the cloud, offering scalability, flexibility, security and efficiency and could be a good tool to consider in your business. It is often used as the first stepping stone into using more advanced cloud services, allowing businesses to change their processes and get familiar beforehand.

As always, if you need advice or guidance or need assistance with an IaaS migration, please do get in touch.