If we talk about "Cloud Computing", it's mainly about three different kind of services: "Infrastructure as a Service" (IaaS), "Platform as a Service" (PaaS) or "Software as a Service" (SaaS). Let's take a look at each.

Let's take a start-up company that wants to offer a cloud-based service: the young company could set up a web server, set up network services and more. It is more likely nowaways, however, that the start-up books the virtual server "EC2" (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud) from AWS (Amazon Web Services), which provides the required services: Server power, computing capacity, storage capacity and network services. And the best thing about it is: The start-up always pays only as much as it actually uses ("usage-based charge models") and at the same time the required computing or storage capacity can be scaled up many times over within a few minutes. This is called Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS for short.

If the StartUp company uses IaaS service, it still needs to install the operating system, install the database system and set up a development environment. If these services are also offered by a cloud computing service provider, this is called Platform as a Service, or PaaS for short.

And finally: If we - as end users - use applications such as iTunes, Spotify, Office365 or GoogleDrive, then we speak of software as a service, or SaaS for short.

Author

Sebastian Zang has cultivated a distinguished career in the IT industry, leading a wide range of software initiatives with a strong emphasis on automation and corporate growth. In his current role as Vice President Partners & Alliances at Beta Systems Software AG, he draws on his extensive expertise to spearhead global technological innovation. A graduate of Universität Passau, Sebastian brings a wealth of international experience, having worked across diverse markets and industries. In addition to his technical acumen, he is widely recognized for his thought leadership in areas such as automation, artificial intelligence, and business strategy.