The TLDR on SaaS – Cloud Services Summary

The TLDR on SaaS or Can You Help Me Understand Cloud Services?

Cloud computing is everywhere. It touches every aspect of computing and communication and continues to evolve. For many of us, the concepts can be tough to parse, let alone, explain. To the uninitiated, many associate Spotify, Gmail, or DropBox when they think of the cloud. Each service delivers functionality to a web browser or a local app on your computer or device, and all or most of the data and processing are happing somewhere other than where you are.

Why should understanding cloud services matter to your small or mid-size business? Using Cloud Services will save your business money and it will offer your employees and customers services that they value. Software as a Service (SaaS) gives your business the possibility to lower IT costs by outsourcing hardware and software upkeep and support to the cloud. You shift IT costs away from hardware/software spending and toward other objectives. In addition, with applications hosted centrally, updates can be released without the need for users to install new software. Read on to learn more.

Cloud Service Models

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivers essential computing, storage, and networking resources on-demand, usually on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Advantage – Scalability, cost-effectiveness, pay-on-demand for utilities, location independence, redundancy, and the security of your data. 

Example – Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Joyent, and more

Platform as a Service (PaaS) delivers hardware and software tools to users over the internet; usually, for application development. A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own remote infrastructure.

Advantage – You don’t have to start from scratch. When you want to build apps without taking on the entire technical stack of costs. It’s kind of like hiring a theater to put on a show instead of building the theater yourself.

Examples – AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Windows Azure (mainly used as PaaS), Google App Engine, Adobe Magento Commerce Cloud.

Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers applications over the Internet. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you use it over the Internet. This frees you from complicated software and hardware management.

Advantage – You don’t need to install and run applications on your computer. Everything is available over the internet when you log in to your account. You can usually access the software from any device, anytime — as long as there is an internet connection. Most SaaS providers typically use a subscription model so you know your costs upfront.

Example – Spotify, Hubspot, Salesforce, Slack, Dropbox

There are tremendous values in expanding and shifting your business to Cloud Services. Talk with Pacific Computer Consultants today to identify solutions that may be right for you.