Key Features and Benefits of Infrastructure as a Service

Scalability:

Within an IaaS Framework, the system can be rapidly provisioned and expanded as needed, either for predictable events or in response to unexpected demand.

Cost of ownership of physical hardware:

Within IaaS, the customer does not need to procure any hardware either For the initial launch and implementation or for Future expansion.

High availability:

The cloud infrastructure, by definition, meets high availability and redundancy requirements, which would result in additional costs For a customer to meet within their own data center.

Physical security requirements:

Because you're in a cloud environment and don't have your own data centers, the cloud provider assumes the cost and oversight of the physical security of its data centers.

Location and access independence:

The cloud-based infrastructure has no dependence on the physical location of the customer or users of the system, as well as no dependence on specific network locations, applications, or clients to access the system. The only dependency is on the security requirements of the cloud itself and the application settings used.

Metered usage:

The customer only pays for the resources they are using and only during the durations of use. There is no need to have large data centers with idle resources for large chunks of time just to cover heavy-load periods.

Potential for “green” data centers:

Many customers and companies are interested in having more environmentally friendly data centers that are high efficiency in terms of both power consumption and cooling. Within cloud environments, many providers have implemented “green” data centers that are more cost effective with the economies oF scale that would prohibit many customers from having their own. Although this is not a requirement for a cloud provider, many major providers do market this as a feature, which is of interest to many customers. Even without specific concerns or priorities For the environment, any organization can appreciate the power and cooling demands of a data center and the financial savings realized within a large cloud environment.