SaaS vs. IaaS vs. PaaS : Differences, Pros, Cons and Examples

SaaS vs. IaaS vs. PaaS Differences, Pros, Cons, and Examples.

There are three major cloud service models: software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS). Cloud service pricing models are categorized into pay-per-use, subscription-based, and hybrid, which is a combination of pay-per-use and subscription pricing models.

Software as a Service SAAS

Software as a service vendor hosts the applications, making them available to users via the internet. With SaaS, businesses don’t have to install or download any software to their existing IT infrastructures. SaaS ensures that users are always running the most up-to-date versions of the software. The SaaS provider handles maintenance and support.

Platform as a Service PAAS

Platform as a service offers developers a platform for software development and deployment over the internet, enabling them to access up-to-date tools. PaaS delivers a framework that developers can use to create customized applications. The organization or the PaaS cloud vendor manages the servers, storage, and networking, while the developers manage the applications.

Infrastructure as a Service IAAS

Infrastructure as a service is used by companies that don’t want to maintain their own on-premises data centers. IaaS provides virtual computing resources over the Internet. The IaaS cloud vendor hosts the infrastructure components that typically exist in an on-premises data center, including servers, storage, and networking hardware, as well as the hypervisor or virtualization layer.

How Do the 3 Cloud Computing Service Models Differ?

The three cloud service models mainly differ in what they offer out of the box. SaaS is cloud-based software that companies can buy from cloud providers and use. PaaS helps developers build customized applications via an application programming interface (API) that can be delivered over the cloud. IaaS helps companies build the infrastructure of cloud-based services, including software, content, or e-commerce websites to sell physical products.

Companies that use SaaS don’t have to manage their data use or maintain their applications. With PaaS and IaaS, however, users must manage their own data use and applications. SaaS and PaaS providers manage organizations’ operating systems, but IaaS users must handle their own operating systems.

SaaS vs. IaaS vs. PaaS Pros, Cons, and Use Cases

SaaS Pros, Cons, and Use Cases

Pros of using SaaS include:

Easy to access and use: The main benefit of SaaS products is that organizations can use them as soon as they subscribe because it’s the easiest cloud model to set up and run. SaaS is also the easiest to maintain because cloud providers manage everything.
Scalability: To add users, organizations just have to upgrade their existing plans or subscriptions. They don’t have to buy additional server space or software licenses.

Cons of using SaaS include:

Lack of control: Organizations don’t have control over their providers’ cloud infrastructures. Consequently, if the provider has an outage, they do as well.
Issue with integrations: Organizations may have trouble integrating their existing in-house software with the SaaS applications, as their in-house APIs and data structures may not integrate with the external applications.

SaaS use cases include enterprise applications for services such as email, sales management, customer relationship management (CRM), financial management, human resource management (HRM), billing, and collaboration.

PaaS Pros, Cons, and Use Cases

Pros of PaaS include:

Simplicity, convenience: PaaS providers deliver most of the infrastructure and other IT services for organizations, which users can access as long as they have an internet connection and a web browser.
Faster development: PaaS platforms provide compute and storage infrastructures, along with text editing, version management, compiling, and testing services that help developers efficiently build new software. They also help development teams work together, regardless of wherever they are physically located.

Cons of PaaS include:

Lack of scalability: PaaS tools are a little more rigid than IaaS tools, which may be an issue for organizations that experience extremely high demand for their products or services at various times throughout the year.
Vendor lock-in: Because PaaS vendors have unique configuration requirements, organizations may find it difficult to move from one provider to another.

PaaS use cases include:

API development: Developers can use PaaS to develop, run, manage and secure APIs and microservices.
Internet of things (IoT): PaaS supports a variety of application environments, tools, and programming languages used for IoT deployments.
Business analytics: Companies can use PaaS tools to analyze their data to uncover business insights for better decision-making.

IaaS Pros, Cons, and Use Cases

Pros of IaaS include:

Cost-efficient: IaaS makes it easier, faster, and more cost-effective for organizations to operate workloads because they don’t have to buy, manage and support the underlying infrastructure.
Scalability: The cloud infrastructure ensures that companies have access to all the resources they need when they need them.

Cons of IaaS include:

Security: In an IaaS environment, organizations relinquish control over cloud security to third-party vendors. So even though a data breach might not directly affect a company’s data, the compromised system could still endanger its operations.
Technical issues: Some organizations may experience downtime with IaaS that they can’t control. Any problems the provider experiences could limit companies’ access to the applications and data they need to operate on a daily basis.

Use cases for IaaS include:

Website hosting: Organizations can save money using IaaS tools rather than traditional web hosting to run their websites.
Deploying software: Companies can use IaaS to deploy and run common business software, such as SAP and Salesforce.
Testing and development: IaaS enables developers to more easily scale up development and test environments.