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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that delivers hardware computing resources over the internet. Conceptually, IaaS replaces the "server" in a data center

  • IaaS converts hardware from a product to a service
  • IaaS changes the investment model from ownership to renting; fixed cost to variable cost
  • IaaS uses virtualization technologies, and the internet

Using NIST definition of cloud computing, IaaS is one of three types of Cloud Computing: 1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 2. Software as a Service (SaaS) 3. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The original term, first used by Nicholas Carr in 2006 was “Hardware as a Service” (HaaS).

Allocating additional storage or processing capacity “over the web” is of course much faster than the supplier bringing and installing new hardware in the basement. The Infrastructure cloud is the domain of IT operations and in most organizations, the users are not even aware that their IT department is using cloud services. Dynamic cloud capacity can cater to unexpectedly large customer demand but also to internal requests such as temporary test servers or an extra SharePoint server for a department’s intranet. [1]


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