IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

💡 Definition

IaaS is a cloud computing service model where a provider offers virtualized computing resources over the internet. These resources include virtual machines (like EC2 instances), storage, networks (like VPCs), and operating systems.

🔑 Key Concepts

• Highest Level of Control: You manage the operating system, applications, runtime, and data.
• AWS Manages: Virtualization, servers, networking, and storage infrastructure.
• Flexible: Provides raw infrastructure, allowing for maximum customization.

⚙️ How it Works

You provision virtual machines, storage, and networking components. You then deploy and manage your operating systems, applications, and middleware on these virtual resources.

🎯 Use Cases

• Lift-and-Shift Migrations: Easily moving existing applications to the cloud.
• Custom Operating Systems: When you need a specific OS or configuration not available in higher-level services.
• Testing and Development: Flexible environment for testing various configurations.

💰 Pricing Model

• Typically pay-as-you-go based on resource consumption (e.g., EC2 instance-hours, EBS GB-months).

📝 Exam Tips (CLF-C02)

• AWS examples: EC2, VPC, S3 (as an object store).
• Customer has most control and most responsibility (e.g., OS patching).
• Compares with PaaS (less control for customer) and SaaS (least control).

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See Also: * PaaS * SaaS * EC2 * Shared Responsibility Model