The Different Types of Cloud Services

Cloud Services

The cloud offers the business all kinds of possibilities in the form of a service, which helps drive the improvement of its operations. However, not all cloud services are created equal. Three standard models can be distinguished and other options that have been incorporated to meet the needs of a network of users increasingly familiar with working in this environment.

The services originally associated with the cloud have common characteristics, although, to better understand what these cloud services can offer the business, it is necessary to know what they are and what they consist of:

• Software as a Service (SaaS): Through this service, the user company can use the provider’s applications, executed in its cloud infrastructure, without exercising management or control capabilities. Although it offers the advantage of practically unlimited access and from any type of client device, it has the drawback that the last word on issues related to the network itself, servers, operating systems, storage or even the capabilities of individual applications rests with the cloud service provider.

• Platform as a Service (PaaS): In this case, the company can deploy its applications on the chosen cloud infrastructure. Again, the provider manages the underlying infrastructure in the cloud. PaaS enables you to avoid the cost and complexity of purchasing and managing software licenses, underlying application infrastructure and middleware, or development tools and other resources, guaranteeing scalability since the client acquires the resources he needs from his supplier as his needs dictate.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): The cloud service provider gives its customer the ability to take advantage of processing, storage, networking, and other critical computing resources to deploy the software of their choice, including applications and services.

After SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, new alternatives were emerging that covered the expectations of the businesses that wanted to continue growing in this new environment. Many companies from very different sectors have already found a way to exploit the total value of cloud services such as:

• Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS): A service model that has more and more followers thanks to the growing importance of data integration in companies, much more so in the cases of businesses that use SaaS. iPaaS providers often offer pre-configured connectors for sharing data between popular SaaS applications and on-premises business applications. They also allow workflows, transformations or data mapping to be implemented as part of the cloud integration process. The difference between some iPaaS providers and others will be in the type of integration they specialize in. It is possible to resort to those focusing on SOA-type integrations, B2B or cloud integrations.

• Security as a Service (SECaaS): Security is delivered as a cloud service, integrated into a corporate infrastructure on a subscription basis, typically very cost-effective when considering things like total cost of ownership. These security services often include authentication, antivirus, antimalware, spyware, intrusion detection, and security event management.

• Functions as a Service (FaaS): Is the advent of cloud computing through serverless architectures. This means that software developers can take advantage of this service to implement anything from a single function or action to a piece of business logic. A special benefit of FaaS applications is that they do not consume any IaaS resources until an event occurs, multiplying their scalability and reducing pay-per-use rates.

• Mobile “back end” as a service (MBaaS): Also known as BaaS (back-end as a service), it is a novel way of linking applications with cloud computing services and these with APIs. Typically, this class of services includes user management, push notifications, and integration with social networking services, among others.

• Identity as a Service (IDaaS): These are SaaS-based IAM offerings that enable organizations to use single sign-on, authentication, and access controls to provide secure access to their SaaS and software applications. With this service, one of the most worrying security problems related to cloud computing is solved, which is managing user identity and its associated rights and permissions through private data centers and public cloud sites.

Also Read: Cloud Computing And Its Deployment Methods