It seems that every vendor is jumping on the “something-as-a-service” tag line. Here’s a quick reference to the different types of Cloud Computing service categories.
Application-as-a-service (AaaS)
This is typically a specific and often specialised business system that is delivered over the Internet to a user, typically accessing the application through a browser. While many people associate Application-as-a-service with ‘vertical’ enterprise applications such as Salesforce, office automation applications are also Applications-as-a-service, such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar and Microsoft’s Cloud-based Office365 or Dynamics CRM.
Data as a service
It could be argued that this service has been with us for some time now – for example Interactive Data’s pricing services. Data/Information-as-a-service provides data on-demand using well defined interfaces such as an API.
Data-as-a-service is typically provided to a company by an external service provider. However, large corporations can benefit from scales of economy by aggregating data and disseminating it within it’s ‘child’ companies.
There are two types of Data-as-a-Service; private data and public data.
- Private data is typically paid-for access to valuable data that isn’t readily available in the public domain. Examples include live stock price information, address and post code/zip code validation, and credit reporting. This type of service is not new and has been provided for years by companies such as Interactive Data.
- Public data is a newer service and is typically formatted data in the public domain. For example, the Google Public Data Explorer allows you to incorporate demographic data with your company’s sales figures to perform powerful statistical analysis.
Data Centre-as-a-service
Refer to Infrastructure-as-a-service.
Database-as-a-service
This provides the ability to use the services of a remotely hosted database, sharing it with other users, and having it logically function as if the database were local. Different providers have different models, but the advantage of this service is to be able to use database technology that would typically be a significant cost in hardware and software licenses if hosted in-house.
Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS)
Also referred to as ‘virtualized desktops’. A large cost for firms is the purchase, deployment and subsequent management of desktop PC devices – especially in remote offices. Desktop-as-a-service can help alleviate these costs and headaches, by offering a virtualized desktop that runs ‘in the Cloud’.
There are operational considerations, such as the fact that the users need physical devices to access the Cloud-delivered desktop. However, these can be low-cost, low-maintenance locked-down thin clients.
Governance-as-a-service
Refer to Management-as-a-service.
Hardware-as-a-Service
This term seems to have faded out of use now. It referred to the ability for companies to avoid purchasing hardware when they could ‘rent’ services from cloud platforms such as Amazon’s EC2.
Identity-Management-as-a-service (IMaaS)
This is an area that has the potential to grow significantly. It covers the identification of users and ensuring they receive only the access levels that they should have. That sounds easy, but how do you know that a remote user is really who they say they are?
This service provides access control and audit capability for multiple SaaS, Public Clouds and Private Clouds, whilst at the same time giving users the benefit of single-sign-on (SSO).
An example of a service in this area is Symplified.
Information-as-a-service
Refer to Data-as-a-service.
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)
This is also referred to as Data Centre-as-a-service, this is the ability to remotely access computing resources. In essence, you lease a physical server that’s yours to do with as you will, and for all practical purposes it is your data centre, or at least part of a data centre. The difference with this approach versus more mainstream cloud computing is that instead of using an interface and a metered service, you’re getting access to the entire machine and the software on that machine.
In short, it’s less a packaged solution and more akin to ‘traditional’ hosting.
Management-as-a-service and Governance-as-a-service
This is an on-demand service from a Cloud service provider that allows the management of one or more Cloud services. Typically, these are simple things such as systems topology, resource utilisation, virtualization management and up-time management.
management/governance systems are now becoming available, such as the ability to enforce defined policies on data and services and report on SLA and service metric compliance.
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
This is a complete platform that is delivered through a remotely hosted (Cloud) platform to subscribers. It can include application development, interface development, database development, storage and testing. It is based on the traditional timesharing model and modern Cloud Platform-as-service providers provide the ability to create enterprise-class applications for use locally or on-demand for a subscription price or free that is typically less than hosting it in-house yourself. An example of this is Microsoft’s Azure platform.
Process-as-a-service
This refers to a remote resource that can aggregate many resources together, such as services and data, whether hosted within the same cloud computing resource or from separate providers, to create business processes.
You can think of a business process as a Meta application that spans different systems, leveraging key services and information that are combined into the correct business sequence to form a process. These processes are usually easier to change than applications, and thus provide agility to those who use these process engines that are delivered on-demand.
Security-as-a-service
As the incidence of viruses, malware, attacks and email phishing increases day-by-day, the job for the IT team to protect a firm gets more and more complex. Security-as-a-service is starting to become an attractive proposition, as it’s a method of outsourcing a headache for management by experts.
For this to work, all Internet connectivity for the firm needs to be routed through the service provider. Failure to do this could result in an unmanaged ‘unlocked back door’ into your firm.
Examples of Security-as-a-Service providers are McAfee, Zscaler and Symantec’s MessageLabs who have been providing this service for some years. Click here for a high-level review of service offerings.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
Refer to Application-as-a-service.
Storage-as-a-service
Also known as ‘storage on demand’ or ‘disk space on demand’.
This is the ability to use storage that physically exists at the remote Cloud service provider but logically appears as local storage resource to any application that requires storage. Apple’s MobileMe iDisk service is an example of Storage-as-a-service..
Testing-as-a-service
This is a service that allows the testing of local or Cloud-delivered systems using testing software and services that are remotely hosted by the Cloud services provider. Note that while a Cloud service requires testing itself, Testing-as-a-service services can test other Cloud applications, Web sites and even internal enterprise systems. They do not require a capital investment in hardware or software within the enterprise, for something that may only be used for a limited period of time.
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For an example of some offerings, take a look at the Cloud solutions from Microsoft – this link will help: http://smb.ms/OutreacheLX2pF
Regards,
Jodi E.
Microsoft SMB Outreach Team
msftoft@microsoft.com
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