All businesses have one thing in common: they want to make profit.
Increasing productivity, saving money, and savvy resource allocation all tie back to this ultimate goal. Luckily, newer technologies are helping businesses accomplish these goals. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is one capability that’s empowering organizations to achieve big things with far fewer resources than ever before.
Infrastructure as a Service is a cloud computing model in which you rent the data center components from a remote location. This idea is beneficial for on-site IT departments that want more control over their applications and their operating system, as opposed to other cloud computing services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
With IaaS, IT departments can install their choice operating system and then build applications on top of that without the hassle of installing and maintaining the equipment.
Today, over half of U.S. businesses use cloud computing. As the world’s creation of data is growing at compounding rates and the need to manage proprietary data becomes increasingly common, startups and other businesses are finding IaaS a practical, efficient and affordable alternative compared to constructing and maintaining their own data centers. Not sure if IaaS is right for your business? Check out these four reasons it makes sense.
1.You Only Pay for What You Use
One of the biggest benefits of IaaS is that you don’t have to pay for products you aren’t using. If you have an on-site data center, you’ll likely buy more servers, faster processors and more hardware components overall than you actually need to ensure the infrastructure can handle your storage needs.
However, a third-party provider will only charge you for the infrastructure components you’re using, often on a “pay-as-you-go” model, even when they have more sophisticated processors and more storage space available.
2.You Can Save Money
In addition to saving money by only paying for what you use, IaaS can help you save in various other ways.
- You don’t have to worry about costs associated with building a data center facility.
- You save time and money on installing the server racks and hardware.
- You don’t have to deal with ongoing costs of cooling and powering the facility.
- You don’t have to maintain IT staff to manage and maintain the data center.
What’s more, IaaS pricing is more predictable since you don’t have to worry about upgrading servers or routers at unpredictable moments. Plus, cloud computing services providers are often incorporating new technologies to improve efficiency.
Your cloud services company is often installing new servers, adding faster processors and making other changes behind the scenes that aren’t even noticeable by the user.
As data centers move toward a software-led infrastructure design, IaaS providers are likely to adopt this new technology before a private company could invest the resources to overhaul their infrastructure. That means IaaS customers stand to benefit from even more data storage, better utilization and improved efficiency without expanding the underlying physical components – a configuration that could potentially be much more affordable.
3.You Can Easily Scale Up
Another benefit that comes along with only paying for what you use is that you can easily scale up your operation without a hassle. Under the legacy data center model, running out of storage means buying more servers, racks and hardware, and sometimes securing a larger building to accommodate that equipment. It can be a budget-blowing expense if unanticipated.
On the other hand, if you use IaaS, that’s up to your IaaS provider. Scaling down? Your IaaS service provider can accommodate, and you’ll benefit from lower costs. Run your own data center and you pay to run the whole configuration, whether you’re using it to full capacity or not.
Leave the resource allocation to the provider, and focus on your more important business decisions.
4.You Have More Control
When compared to other cloud models—Software as a Service and Platform as a Service—IaaS makes more sense for IT departments looking to have more control over their operating system, application software, and infrastructure.
Since you only receive the utilities and physical hardware, you have more flexibility to employ the platforms that you prefer for better provisioning, rapid deployment and other needs that suit your business model.
Cloud computing is becoming more mainstream as businesses realize that it’s an incredibly cost-effective and practical solution compared to the legacy data center environment. Businesses requiring more control with fewer resource demands are reaping countless benefits from IaaS.