IaaS or SaaS? What is the best alternative for each business?

Understanding IaaS and SaaS concepts and the benefits of each.

The transition from traditional companies to digital organizations has generated a series of crucial tools to create value and become a leader in their market. Of course, we are talking about the birth of business models such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service).

We explained in a previous article the 7 main reasons why it is advantageous to have a Cloud Computing service in your business; today we explain the concepts of IaaS and SaaS and outline the benefits of each.

What is it and what are the advantages of IaaS?

In general terms, this business model can be defined as a standardized and highly automated process, which includes the provision of computing resources, hardware, software, servers, data storage, and network, which are hosted by a service provider.

Gartner even defines IaaS as: “an automated, standardized offering, where compute resources, complemented by storage options and network capabilities, are owned by the provider and offered to the consumer for consumption at the consumer's convenience”.

The main advantages offered by the IaaS model include:

  • Scalability: because resources are available according to the customer's needs.
  • The elimination of hardware investments: all the necessary physical equipment is the responsibility of the service provider.
  • The possibility of using the services from anywhere: as long as there is an internet connection.
  • It is an 'on-demand' service: in other words, the user should be able to use the computing resources without having to go to a human being.
  • Security: the likelihood of an IaaS service suffering from security problems is much lower than the model where each customer must buy the hardware.

However, as an alternative for a business, it is important to highlight that IaaS is a service more focused on companies that work with technology because it allows them to develop and adjust virtual machines to their own needs.

What is SaaS and what are its advantages?

The second business model is Software as a Service. This is basically a new software distribution model in which applications are hosted by the service provider and made available to customers, usually via the internet. In other words, we are talking about any web-based service for which we pay a basic monthly fee. Thus, Gartner defines SaaS as "software that is owned, delivered and managed by some vendor”

Among the main advantages of SaaS are the following:

  • Lower costs: no processing power is required to run applications, as it is provided by the cloud.
    This means that SaaS eliminates financial risk related to software maintenance and upgrades.
  • Immediate use: applications are ready to use immediately once we sign up and the time spent on software installation and configuration is reduced.
  • Scalability: it adapts to our needs, offering us more storage space or additional services allowing automated scaling and on-demand resource availability.
  • Automatic updates: we do not have to be aware of updating the software, as it does so automatically with frequent and efficient delivery patches and upgrades and generally free of charge.
  • Customization: generally, on-demand software allows modifications to adapt it to the needs of each client.
  • Access from any device: we can use the software from any computer with internet access.

Therefore, if you have a company that depends on several applications, this business model is the one that can best adapt to your needs, because if your focus is not the IT infrastructure, you do not have to be solving the problems that, for example, the change of version of certain software presents.

Consult our portfolio of Cloud services here and let us advise you on the best solution for your company.

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