Jargon Busting

Cloud terminology can be a bit daunting.

Here we hope to explain a few of the concepts and common terms that will be important to your understanding of the process of migrating to a Hybrid IT environment.

Providing operating system level virtualised servers (Windows / Linux) on which you may host your development applications (typically web based), servers and databases.

As the technology improves and legacy systems become out dated PaaS will become more of a logical choice.

Infrastructure as a Service. (IaaS)

Platform as a service. (PaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the Internet.  IaaS is one of three main categories of cloud computing services, alongside Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Buying the use of a 3rd parties hardware infrastructure (often virtualised) on which to host your companies systems and applications. Scalable, raw compute power, but without pre-installed operating systems or applications. This will allow you to reduce network overhead, by not having to worry about equipment failure or other onsite common occurrences.

Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model that delivers applications over the Internet. In a PaaS model, a cloud provider delivers hardware and software tools — usually those needed for application development — to its users as a service. A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure. As a result, PaaS frees users from having to install in-house hardware and software to develop or run a new application.

Provides operating system level virtualised servers (Windows / Linux) on which you may host your development applications (typically web based), servers and databases.

Advantages of Consuming IaaS
It is a metered service, you pay for what you use.
Dynamic scaling that allows you to pool your resources accordingly.
Good investment for smaller companies that can’t afford a full networked infrastructure.
Allows current IT team to shift focus onto more important issues.
Advantages of Consuming PaaS
Each platform component is provided as a service.
The services it has has the functionality to support a complete life cycle of developing and completing web applications .
Has the ability to host, maintain, test in its own integrated development environment.

Software as a Service. (SaaS)

Business Process as a Service. (BPaaS)

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. SaaS is one of three main categories of cloud computing, alongside infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). Whether you want to run an e-mail server, document store, website, blog, customer relationship management (CRM) or even HR, this will do it all!

Advantages of Consuming SaaS
The businesses running this are professional so if things break they will most likely fix it promptly.
Normally more robust, powerful & secure than in house operations
Has a lower cost of ownership and frees up valuable I.T. space.
Applications being offered are typically good or else people would find business elsewhere.

Business processes sold as a service in the cloud. A business process that’s delivered based on the cloud services model.

These (business process) cloud services — which include Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) — are therefore dependent on these related services.