Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides users with the ability to use computing resources, data warehouses, and network components on demand over the Internet. Customers rent these resources from a cloud service provider, paying only for the amount actually used, which corresponds to the "pay-as-you-go" model. At the same time, the provider manages and maintains the necessary hardware and software.

IaaS Components

The IaaS model includes the following main elements:

• Hardware resources: virtual servers, storage systems, and network equipment that are provided as virtualized components.
• Operating systems and software: virtualization tools and resource management tools that enable efficient allocation and control of resource usage.
• Middleware: Provides interaction between different systems and applications, as well as manages access to resources.

The principle of IaaS operation

The cloud service provider hosts and maintains the necessary equipment in its data centers. The client gets remote access to these resources via the Internet and can:

• Deploy infrastructure quickly: create and configure virtual machines and other resources in minutes.
• Scale resources as needed: increase or decrease the amount of resources used according to current needs.
• Pay only for used resources: there are no capital costs for equipment, payment is made for actual consumption.

This allows companies to avoid large investments in their own infrastructure and focus on developing their core business processes.

Advantages of IaaS

Using infrastructure as a service provides a number of significant advantages:

• Cost reduction: there are no costs for the purchase and maintenance of own equipment.
• Flexibility and scalability: the ability to quickly respond to changes in business needs without additional investment.
• Increased fault tolerance: cloud providers provide redundancy and high availability of services.
• Strengthening data security: professional cloud services are implementing modern methods of information protection.

Due to these advantages, the IaaS model is attractive to a wide variety of organizations — from young startups to large IT companies.

Comparison of IaaS and HaaS

IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and HaaS (Hardware-as-a-Service) are two service delivery models that, despite the similarity in name, have significant differences:

• IaaS: Offers virtualized resources such as virtual machines, virtual networks, and data warehouses. Customers gain the flexibility to customize and scale resources as needed, allowing them to quickly adapt to changing requirements.
• HaaS: Focused on renting physical equipment, such as servers or network devices. Customers get access to specific hardware with fixed characteristics for a long time, which limits the possibilities of scaling and flexibility.

Thus, IaaS provides a more dynamic and adaptive solution compared to HaaS, which is especially important in today's rapidly changing business landscape.