What is IaaS?

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) means that you can rent a computer plus storage capacity via the (inter)net and only pay for what you use. The ‘compute’ power delivered via IaaS is available immediately – as in ‘as-fast-as-you-type-your-credit-card-details’ – and there are no technical limitations (only financial) to the number of machines that can be launched.

How is IaaS being used?

Thanks to IaaS, you no longer have to buy a computer, when you need one. Small and large business alike have discovered how they can benefit from IaaS. It is a boon for those startups with a business idea that needs a lot of ‘compute’ horsepower, but who don’t have the funds to invest in a big datacenter. Examples range from the entertainment industry, such as online gaming, to scientific data-crunching for biomedical research. For large enterprises and government organizations, a public IaaS services is a shortcut to the slow and cumbersome corporate IT-requisition process. For example, application developers in need of a test environment or number-crunchers craving for a couple of hundred of computers for a couple of hours, can cut the waiting time from months to minutes by circumventing getting their fix from AWS, instead of the ‘official’ IT Department.

What about Private IaaS computing?

For enterprises, the ‘rogue’ use of a public IaaS service may be problematic and can even spell legal trouble: certain information or data, such as medical patient records, needs to remain under strict control of the owning organization; new software programs and algorithms often contain a company’s ‘secret sauce’, and are not allowed to leave the – physical – premises.  A public cloud is likely to be a ‘no-go area’ for regular Enterprise use. Enter the private cloud, built and hosted for a single user, bringing the benefits of cloud computing to an enteprise near you.