Acquired Applications Created Using Business Rese
Chapter one of the CompTIA Cloud+ text (Montgomery, 2016) introduces concepts of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS), as well as several other cloud services. These three make up the core foundation of cloud services we use today.
Drawn from chapter 1 of the CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide (Montgomery, 2016).
Cloud service models are characterized by the term as a service and are accessed by many types of devices, including web browsers, thin clients, and mobile devices. There are three primary service types with many other service types regularly coming to the marketplace. Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) are the core service offerings. Many cloud service providers offer more descriptive terms in their marketing and sales offerings, including Communications as a Service (CaaS), Anything as a Service (XaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS), and Business Process as a Service (BPaaS), to name a few of the additional offerings. However, all of these new services fit into either SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS.
SaaS
The National Institute of Standards (NIST) offers standard definitions of cloud computing terms and describes Software as a Service (SaaS) as follows: The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a Web browser (e.g., Web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model is where the customer of the service accesses application software that is owned and controlled by the cloud company that has complete responsibility for management and support of the application. All networking, processing, storage, and applications are offered as a service in this model. Business applications are good examples of SaaS and can include customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, human resources, payroll, and software development applications. Hosted applications such as email or calendars that are accessible from a browser are examples of SaaS.
IaaS
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service is described by NIST as follows: The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls). Infrastructure as a Service offers the customer the most flexibility of any of the e-service models. IaaS offers complete control over the base offerings, such as storage and networking and, more importantly, software and applications. The cloud consumer purchases a basic computing hardware platform and can build their solutions on top of that. IaaS allows the company’s datacenter equipment to be replaced by the cloud equivalent but retains the ability to build software infrastructure on top of the hardware as can be done in a private datacenter.
PaaS
Using NIST as the standard reference for cloud definitions, we learn that Platform as a Service is The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or -acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations. Platform as a Service offers the compute and operating systems as a service and allows customers to install their applications on the Cloud platform. The cloud provider takes responsibility up to the operating system level, including all hardware and OS software. The consumer can deploy their applications quickly without having to purchase and install their own servers and associated equipment. This allows for rapid deployment of applications.
References
Montgomery, T. (2016). CompTIA cloud study guide: Exam CV0-001. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1119243229
Prompt
For this assignment, select one of these three core services and use an online research library such as EBSCOhost, Proquest, or Google Scholar to research information about it. In a 3 page APA-formatted paper, address the following three components: What is the service and how does it work? How is it used by individuals and businesses? How does the service support client mobility?
Write your paper using the APA template provided in the course, and include in-text headings for each of these three questions. Include an introduction and a conclusion in your paper, as well as the cover page, running head, page numbers, in-text citations for your researched sources, and a final references page.