How IaaS is changing the game

The Basics of IaaS

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a game-changing service model that delivers the power of the cloud on an infrastructure level, whether pubic, private, or hybrid cloud. Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals behind this type of service model and the value it delivers to organizations of all sizes.

Defining cloud computing fundamentals

There are three basic cloud service models: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). The cloud has five main attributes, which include on-demand service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. Finally, there are three basic deployment models: public, private, and hybrid.

With so many different definitions and terms in the world of cloud computing, it’s important to clarify the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS).

When it comes to IaaS, the virtualization, networking, and data center management is done by the cloud provider on behalf of the customer.

However, a next-generation IaaS model gives more control–and more predictable performance–to the customer. These newer IaaS models offer on-demand, single-tenant, bare-metal machines and also provide greater security than their first-generation counterparts.

The enterprise workload

Most businesses run on enterprise applications to keep things running. And while every business is different, they all expect their workloads in the cloud to have:

Elasticity and scalability

With more available capacity than an enterprise, a cloud provider can automatically scale as needed.

Predictability

Consistent performance for critical applications.

High performance

Low latency and high throughput are usually required for enterprise applications.

Open standards and workload/data portability

The freedom to move applications and data to the cloud, along with reliable standards for application programming interfaces (APIs), management, and orchestration.

Security and trustworthiness

Confidence that workloads and data are secure in the cloud.

Service level agreements (SLAs)

Performance guarantees, along with remedies for SLA violations.

The public cloud should also allow enterprises to extend governance to the cloud natively, with visibility into who is accessing resources. A cloud provider should provide an enterprise with the following:

Identity and access management

Authorize who can use certain resources.

Role-based access control

Authorize different levels of access to resources for various users.

Resource visibility

IT has a unified view of security policies and permissions.

Quotas

The ability to limit the availability of resources at specific times.

Showback/chargeback

Allocate infrastructure usage costs to specific departments or users.

Tagging

Allow users to do bulk actions on a set of resources based on the tag.

Understanding the value of IaaS in the enterprise

The reasons to adopt IaaS:

Reducing dependence on the corporate data center:

Eliminating infrastructure management and moving workloads off-premises.

IaaS for specific initiatives:

Support new applications and respond to line-of-business requests.

Developing cloud native applications:

Using containers and serverless computing to develop and deploy cloud native infrastructure.

With increased speed and agility, IaaS provides developers access to infrastructure in minutes so they can run their applications quickly and easily. They can also enjoy improved flexibility over an on-premises environment, and with less hardware to manage and maintain, IaaS customers benefit from cost savings and lower overhead costs.

Introducing Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides enterprises with a cloud that mirrors their on-premises environment, and also offers the benefits of the public cloud—with the same control, security, isolation, and performance of an on-premises data center. Designed to power all workloads, including legacy and cloud native, Oracle Cloud’s predictable and globally consistent model is among the most competitive in the industry.

Oracle’s IaaS offering includes:

Compute

Oracle offers a wide array of compute options, including VMs, bare metal instances, and GPUs with bare metal or VMs.

Storage

Access data from any environment with secure and scalable cloud-based storage, including object storage, network block storage, database backup storage, and more.

Network

Connect on-premises data center securely to OCI via VPN or FastConnect.

Edge and connectivity

VPN services offer dedicated connectivity between Oracle cloud regions and on-premises data centers.

Containers

Customers can bring their own infrastructure or leverage Oracle’s Kubernetes service.

Oracle Autonomous Database

Leverage Oracle Autonomous JSON Database, Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing, and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse without configuring or managing hardware or installing software.

Oracle Cloud for independent software vendors (ISVs)

Oracle assists ISVs worldwide in offering the best service and infrastructure to enterprises that want higher performance, lower costs, and easier migration from on-premises to the cloud. Additionally, better flexibility, competitive costs, and rapid provisioning have driven many enterprises to move to Oracle from other cloud vendors.

To learn more about IaaS and cloud infrastructure, including use cases and benefits, get a free copy of IaaS for Dummies today.