SaaS vs PaaS vs IaaS: Which Cloud Service Is Suitable for You

Cloud computing is an on-demand topic for small-scale to large-scale businesses. Since cloud services offer more efficiency and benefits to their clients, it becomes an interesting factor for every software development company. The main goal of cloud computing is to provide a wide range of storage features for many users. 

According to Gartner, the worldwide public cloud service markets are growing up to 17% more in 2020. Let’s discuss the benefits of cloud computing so you can understand it in detail.

Benefits of Cloud Computing Services

• Security: Security is the major feature that knocks our minds when storing data in the cloud. All cloud vendors assure your data privacy and protection, and they take care of the data in a more encrypted way.
• Scalability: Many hardware resources will face issues when getting more traffic as they need to upgrade the on-premises hardware. This situation is not happening in the cloud as it is a wide area for many users, and the clients can be comfortable with more traffic to their businesses.
• Low Cost: Cloud service is an affordable method for your project as you don’t want to buy hardware and need not pay for server installations and configurations. The vendor will maintain the server, and you can pay only for the cloud storage based on your requirement (i.e., you can pay for what you use)

Even if you can be benefitted more from this cloud model, it will be better when you use the right type of cloud computing for your company.

Cloud Computing Types

You have the following three different models of cloud services. From that, you have to identify the service that is most suitable for your needs. 

1. SaaS: Software as a Service

SaaS is the foremost cloud-based web app service used by most software development companies. The third-party vendor will manage the software and hardware. You are free from hiring a dedicated team to maintain the hardware and software installations, and you can pay only the subscription fee for the SaaS applications. In simple, you pay only for your requirements.

You can get the cloud service once you become registered and after obtaining your login details like name and password. 

How Does SaaS Benefit You?

SaaS is a low-cost model suitable for a range of companies. The following are the features and benefits of SaaS: 

• Save Money: Instead of buying additional hardware and software, SaaS users are offered to pay monthly subscriptions, thus, saving money on investing in extra resources. Also, the customers have the option to cancel the subscription plans at any time. 
• Access and Updates: As a cloud-based service, SaaS allows its users to access a wide range of internet-based devices. At the same time, SaaS gives automatic feature updates, which will reduce the work time of its customers. 
• Highly Scalable: SaaS offers users the ability to extend their space in the cloud platform. The users can expand their storage based on their needs. Hence, unlimited access to the platform is offered equally to all users. 
• Customized Architecture: SaaS is a multitenant architecture model (i.e., all SaaS users will use one common source code with infrastructure). Since all are under one roof, the users can create innovative solutions based on their demands. 

Examples of SaaS-Based Cloud Services

• Big Commerce 
• Google Apps 
• MailChimp 
• HubSpot 
• Dropbox

2. PaaS: Platform as a Service

PaaS is a cloud-based platform service that offers its users a platform to build and run applications. Software developers will benefit a lot from using this cloud service model as they get the run-time environment to build an app from simple to complicated features. 

PaaS is a lot like SaaS, but the only difference is that users can access only the application in SaaS, and in PaaS, the users can get run-time software to design the app.

How Does PaaS Benefit You?

Following are the features and benefits of PaaS: 

• Low Development Time: With PaaS services, software developers complete the development process in less time. Only the software is accessed by the developers, and vendors will take charge of hardware installations and configurations, etc., without worrying about maintaining the servers. The developers will focus on producing high-quality and user-friendly applications with their software. 
• Multi-Programming Support: Every software developer is using different programming languages based on the app features. PaaS supports multiple programming languages, thus, opening the opportunity to all software developers irrespective of the particular programming language and technology.
• More Versatile and Automation: The versatility feature is high in PaaS-based services, and it offers the users API that permits the developers to develop scalable and secured applications. Also, automatic updates of the new features are an interesting part of the PaaS service. 
• Different Framework: PaaS supports different kinds of frameworks for app development, like traditional app runtime frameworks, pluggable support runtime, visual programming models, etc.

Examples of PaaS-Based Cloud Services 

Following are using the PaaS service models: 

• Heroku 
• Magento Commerce Cloud 
• Apache Stratos 
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk 
• OpenShift

3. IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

IaaS is a virtual data center service that provides a complete infrastructure for its users to develop the application. 

Like SaaS and PaaS, IaaS users need to pay for what they use. In IaaS, the development company can choose the type of operating system and can have access to manage all the software installations. The developers will be able to maintain the server and storage easily.

How Does IaaS Benefit You? 

• Develop Anything: From developing simple and complicated apps to hosting a website, IaaS users have access to all the development processes. 
• Own Space for Development: As a virtual data place for the development team, the developers are capable of deciding their OS, languages, and technologies, and also capable of maintaining the security of their project.
• Analyzing Large Data: For the app development process, analyzing large sets of data is an important part. IaaS services are the best way as it provides a long run cloud computing power to analyze big data. 
• Expected Business Growth: Since the company is investing money and time in IaaS, this model provides the service that is worth to their time. Since having the whole management of infrastructure (server, storage), the company will be able to provide innovative solutions to the applications and move forward to increase their business growth. 

Examples of IaaS-Based Cloud Services 

Some of the IaaS based examples are: 

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) 
• DigitalOcean 
• Microsoft Azure 
• Google Compute Engine (GCE)

SaaS vs PaaS vs IaaS 

All three cloud services benefit their users in different ways. The difference between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS lies in the server and storage resources: 

• SaaS is suitable for end-users who want access only to the applications. 
• PaaS is suitable for software developers who want access to a run-time platform to develop apps. 
• IaaS is perfect for IT administration and development companies who want the complete infrastructure to develop the application.

It’s your time to choose the best cloud service model that suits your business needs. Once you decide the suitable model, you can talk to developers (if you are non-tech person) to develop your application with the best cloud hosting services.