What is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)?

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. This model allows businesses to rent IT infrastructure, such as servers, storage, and networking, on a pay-as-you-go basis. Additionally, organizations can leverage IAM solutions to control access to these resources effectively.

IaaS enables organizations to scale their infrastructure needs dynamically without the costs and complexities associated with maintaining physical hardware, providing flexibility and efficiency for managing workloads and applications. IaaS is one of the three main categories of cloud services, alongside:

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
  

In an IaaS model, a cloud provider hosts the infrastructure components traditionally present in an on-premises data center, including servers, storage, and networking hardware, as well as the virtualization or hypervisor layer. IaaS provides significant flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. This makes it an ideal choice for companies that want to reduce physical infrastructure costs while enhancing performance and concentrating on strategic business activities.

IAM in an IaaS environment allows organizations to implement identity provisioning, authentication, and authorization processes, ensuring that only authorized users have access to the cloud infrastructure and its resources. This integration enhances security, compliance, and operational efficiency by allowing granular control over user permissions and access policies in a scalable cloud environment.

As cloud technologies continue to evolve, IaaS remains a crucial component for many organizations in their digital transformation journeys, supporting a broad range of applications and workloads.