understanding cloud platform services

Client logo

Understanding cloud platform services:

IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

Prepared by: Dan Barkley

April 2nd, 2014

What are IaaS, PaaS, SaaS?

Toronto | Ottawa | New York | Calgary | São Paulo | Florianópolis 2

Three approaches to deploying (or consuming as the case may be) “cloud” applications:

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service PaaS: Platform as a Service SaaS: Software as a Service

Each service encompasses different

layers of the application “stack”

Networking

Application Runtime

Business / Consumer Data

IaaS

PaaS

SaaS

Operating System

Application Frameworks

Business / Consumer Apps

Hardware

Server (inc. virtualized)

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

Client logo



• Basic infrastructure (hardware, networking, servers) is supplied by a service provider

• This is typically IT in the case of a private cloud, or a third-party company (e.g. Amazon EC2, Rackspace) in the case of a *public* cloud



• A central, knowledgeable group is responsible for infrastructure, thus will be more effective and efficient at providing the service

• They achieve economies of scale by:

- hosting many customer applications on the same infrastructure

- supporting those applications with dedicated, specialized staff

• Organizations pay a fee for this service

PaaS: Platform as a Service

Client logo


PaaS: Platform as a Service• Application platform components (persistence,

runtime, frameworks, etc.) are provided by a third-party, and you build your consumer or business application on it

• Private PaaS cloud: IT as a service provider (possibly relying on a commercial or open source PaaS offering)

• Public PaaS cloud: offered by a third-party company (e.g. Google AppEngine, Red Hat OpenShift, Microsoft Windows Azure, OpenStack)



• Application development organizations build their solutions on a known, stable platform with a consistent set of components

• Beneficial due to the ability to leverage and reuse lower-level components

• Need only to develop the application / business level logic

• Application teams and companies would typically pay a fee for this service

Client logo

Agenda item 2


PaaS is in the early stages, but has a bright future

"Users and vendors of enterprise IT software solutions that are not yet engaged with PaaS must begin building expertise in PaaS or face tough

challenges from competitors in the coming years.“ -- Gartner

SaaS: Software as a Service

Client logo



• Business or consumer software application is provided by a third party

• Should probably be called “Application as a Service”, but the acronym isn’t as nice

• Salesforce.com CRM and SAP SuccessFactors are good examples of SaaS in the business world

• Facebook, Gmail and My Yahoo are consumer-focused SaaS examples


Toronto | Ottawa | New York | Calgary | São Paulo | Florianópolis13

• Vendor can provide a valuable application to a customer that they would never be able to develop or maintain themselves

• SaaS vendors achieve economies of scale (and revenue) through relatively large numbers of customers

• Customers will typically pay some subscription, either time-based (e.g. monthly, yearly) or service-based (e.g. pay for a certain # of messages, volume of photos, etc.)

Now that we know what they are, let’s look at what you need to decide…

Client logo

Client logo

Realize that the line between IaaS and PaaS and between PaaS and SaaS can

sometimes be very fuzzy and many offerings overlap these category definitions

Networking

Application Runtime

Business / Consumer

Data

Amazon EC2 + Cloud Search

Microsoft Office36

5Operating System

Application Frameworks

Business / Consumer

Apps

Hardware

Server

Many IaaS vendors now offer some functionality that overlaps with PaaS vendors

(e.g. Amazon EC2 + Amazon Cloud Search)

Some SaaS applications are considered to be the

platform for other higher-level applications (e.g.

Microsoft Office365 as a platform service on which

you can build other business solutions)

Remem

ber!From a cost-benefit perspective:IaaS achieves cost-benefit gains at the

physical-infrastructure levelPaaS achieves cost-benefit gains at the

application-development services levelSaaS achieves cost-benefit gains at the

application / solution level


IaaS: How can you make it work for you?


• IaaS is widely applicable, regardless of the size or purpose of your organization

• For small and medium-sized organizations, leveraging IaaS from a third-party can alleviate the need for expensive infrastructure and resources in-house

• For large organizations, public IaaS is often used to “shore up” internal data centers by taking on additional load during peak periods, or be used for temporary purposes like testing, or proof-of-concept

• Very large organizations may have an internal services group provide their own private IaaS to be leveraged by other groups

IaaS: How can you make it work for you?


To assess your cost-benefit for IaaS you will need to assess your current inventory and needs in terms of:

Operating systems (e.g. Windows, Unix, Linux),

Performance, usage and service levels

Regulatory or organizational policies you need to adhere to

Current costs

Next, assess your findings against the different vendor offerings to build out a business case and ultimately determine if there is a “fit”

for your organization

• Applicable to organizations who develop their own comprehensive applications

• Leverages a common application development platform and the reusable components “baked” into the PaaS

Benefits of PaaS:

Driving consistency by enforcing a common application framework

Providing access to a common development platform across the globe

PaaS: Who should be using it?


• Offerings differ based on the technologies, programming languages and application services they provide

• To determine if a PaaS may be a good fit for your organization you must understand your needs in terms of:

Programming languages you need to support

Application services / frameworks

Accessibility by development and the user base

Security policies and regulations

PaaS: Who should be using it?


SaaS: Who is using it?


• SaaS can be useful for organizations of any size and in any business

• Two approaches to SaaS:

1. An organization may use a single SaaS application (e.g. a small company using a SaaS accounting application)

2. use several different SaaS applications as many large organizations are now doing (e.g. Salesforce.com for CRM, Office365 or Box.net for collaboration and document management, SAP SuccessFactors for HR performance, etc.)

SaaS: Who is using it?


• Replacing an existing solution with a SaaS application? • Fairly easy to compare the costs between the two. Often comes

down to reductions in direct/indirect maintenance costs and/or increases in user productivity.

• Completely new SaaS application where there is no existing close equivalent?• It can get tough to determine the true value. There is no easy

answer and estimating its value will depend on the type of application and how it addresses cost savings, provides business opportunity, reduces risk, etc.

There are some other very important things to consider when making

your decision…

In many circumstances IaaS, PaaS and/or SaaS can be setup and working within a matter of minutes.

This is extremely valuable!

But there are trade-offs…

Client logo Toronto | Ottawa | New York | Calgary | São Paulo | Florianópolis

24

• Security• You’ll be trusting an IaaS, PaaS and/or SaaS vendor with potentially sensitive

information (e.g customer details or financial data)

• Must ensure vendor’s security capabilities meet your data requirements

• Integrity and maintenance of overall IT environment• Cloud services can create a mess when it comes to user accounts,

consolidating business analytics data, managing business policies etc.

• The larger the org, the larger the problem. Too many independent environments and applications can create new problems

• User experience and efficiency • Too many applications can be a user experience nightmare- many accounts

to manage and potentially many different user interfaces and behaviours to learn

Security, IT environment, user experience


Considering a move to the cloud?


• Try not to get caught up in the hype!

• Understand the cost-benefit and trade-offs of different approaches in order to determine the best fit for your organization

• The three approaches are not mutually exclusive

• The best fit for your organization may be a mix (hybrid)

The key takeway:

There is no “one size fits all” approach to the cloud.

Client logo

Dan Barkley• nonlinear Solutions Architect• Specializes in business

intelligence, enterprise software and architecture

Want to learn more about nonlinear enterprise?

@nonlinear_tweet nonlinear creations

www.nonlinearenterprise.com

https://twitter.com/nonlinear_tweet

understanding cloud platform services

Technology