Understanding cloud platform services

Prepared by: Dan Barkley
April 2nd, 2014

Three approaches to deploying (or consuming
as the case may be) “cloud” applications:
 IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
 PaaS: Platform as a Service
 SaaS: Software as a Service

Each service encompasses
different layers of the
application “stack”
Networking
Application Runtime
Business /
Consumer Data
IaaS
PaaS
SaaS
Operating System
Application
Frameworks
Business /
Consumer Apps
Hardware
Server (inc.
virtualized)

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

• Basic infrastructure (hardware, networking, servers) is
supplied by a service provider
• This is typically IT in the case of a private cloud, or a
third-party company (e.g. Amazon EC2, Rackspace) in
the case of a *public* cloud

• A central, knowledgeable group is responsible for
infrastructure, thus will be more effective and efficient at
providing the service
• They achieve economies of scale by:
- hosting many customer applications on the same
infrastructure
- supporting those applications with dedicated, specialized
staff
• Organizations pay a fee for this service

• Application platform components (persistence, runtime,
frameworks, etc.) are provided by a third-party, and you
build your consumer or business application on it
• Private PaaS cloud: IT as a service provider (possibly
relying on a commercial or open source PaaS offering)
• Public PaaS cloud: offered by a third-party company
(e.g. Google AppEngine, Red Hat OpenShift, Microsoft
Windows Azure, OpenStack)

• Application development organizations build their
solutions on a known, stable platform with a consistent set
of components
• Beneficial due to the ability to leverage and reuse lower-
level components
• Need only to develop the application / business level logic
• Application teams and companies would typically pay a
fee for this service

• Business or consumer software application is
provided by a third party
• Should probably be called “Application as a
Service”, but the acronym isn’t as nice 
• Salesforce.com CRM and SAP SuccessFactors are
good examples of SaaS in the business world
• Facebook, Gmail and My Yahoo are consumer-
focused SaaS examples

• Vendor can provide a valuable application to a customer
that they would never be able to develop or maintain
themselves
• SaaS vendors achieve economies of scale (and revenue)
through relatively large numbers of customers
• Customers will typically pay some subscription, either
time-based (e.g. monthly, yearly) or service-based (e.g. pay
for a certain # of messages, volume of photos, etc.)

Now that we know what they are,
let’s look at what you need to
decide…

Realize that the line between
IaaS and PaaS and between PaaS
and SaaS can sometimes be very
fuzzy and many offerings overlap
these category definitions

Networking
Application
Runtime
Business /
Consumer Data
Amazon
EC2 +
Cloud
Search
Microsoft
Office365Operating
System
Application
Frameworks
Business /
Consumer Apps
Hardware
Server
Many IaaS vendors now offer
some functionality that overlaps
with PaaS vendors (e.g. Amazon
EC2 + Amazon Cloud Search)
Some SaaS applications are
considered to be the platform
for other higher-level
applications (e.g. Microsoft
Office365 as a platform service
on which you can build other
business solutions)

From a cost-benefit perspective:
IaaS achieves cost-benefit gains at the
physical-infrastructure level
PaaS achieves cost-benefit gains at the
application-development services level
SaaS achieves cost-benefit gains at the
application / solution level

• IaaS is widely applicable, regardless of the size or purpose of your
organization
• For small and medium-sized organizations, leveraging IaaS from a
third-party can alleviate the need for expensive infrastructure and
resources in-house
• For large organizations, public IaaS is often used to “shore up” internal
data centers by taking on additional load during peak periods, or be
used for temporary purposes like testing, or proof-of-concept
• Very large organizations may have an internal services group provide
their own private IaaS to be leveraged by other groups

To assess your cost-benefit for IaaS you will need to assess your current
inventory and needs in terms of:
 Operating systems (e.g. Windows, Unix, Linux),
 Performance, usage and service levels
 Regulatory or organizational policies you need to adhere to
 Current costs
Next, assess your findings against the different vendor offerings to build out a
business case and ultimately determine if there is a “fit” for your organization

• Applicable to organizations who develop their own
comprehensive applications
• Leverages a common application development platform and the
reusable components “baked” into the PaaS
Benefits of PaaS:
 Driving consistency by enforcing a common application
framework
 Providing access to a common development platform across the
globe

• Offerings differ based on the technologies, programming languages and
application services they provide
• To determine if a PaaS may be a good fit for your organization you must
understand your needs in terms of:
 Programming languages you need to support
 Application services / frameworks
 Accessibility by development and the user base
 Security policies and regulations

• SaaS can be useful for organizations of any size and in any
business
• Two approaches to SaaS:
1. An organization may use a single SaaS application (e.g. a
small company using a SaaS accounting application)
2. use several different SaaS applications as many large
organizations are now doing (e.g. Salesforce.com for CRM,
Office365 or Box.net for collaboration and document
management, SAP SuccessFactors for HR performance, etc.)

• Replacing an existing solution with a SaaS application?
• Fairly easy to compare the costs between the two. Often comes down to
reductions in direct/indirect maintenance costs and/or increases in user
productivity.
• Completely new SaaS application where there is no existing close
equivalent?
• It can get tough to determine the true value. There is no easy answer and
estimating its value will depend on the type of application and how it
addresses cost savings, provides business opportunity, reduces risk, etc.

There are some other very important things
to consider when making
your decision…
In many circumstances IaaS, PaaS and/or SaaS can be setup
and working within a matter of minutes.
This is extremely valuable!
But there are trade-offs…

• Security
• You’ll be trusting an IaaS, PaaS and/or SaaS vendor with potentially sensitive information
(e.g customer details or financial data)
• Must ensure vendor’s security capabilities meet your data requirements
• Integrity and maintenance of overall IT environment
• Cloud services can create a mess when it comes to user accounts, consolidating business
analytics data, managing business policies etc.
• The larger the org, the larger the problem. Too many independent environments and
applications can create new problems
• User experience and efficiency
• Too many applications can be a user experience nightmare- many accounts to manage
and potentially many different user interfaces and behaviours to learn

• Try not to get caught up in the hype!
• Understand the cost-benefit and trade-offs of different
approaches in order to determine the best fit for your
organization
• The three approaches are not mutually exclusive
• The best fit for your organization may be a mix (hybrid)

The key takeway:
There is no “one size fits all”
approach to the cloud.

Dan Barkley
• nonlinear Solutions Architect
• Specializes in business intelligence,
enterprise software and architecture
Want to learn more about nonlinear enterprise?
@nonlinear_tweet nonlinear creations www.nonlinearenterprise.com

Understanding cloud platform services

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