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The cloud computing layers

What makes cloud computing so different from traditional storage of data? Cloud computing allows businesses and private individuals to use technology such as databases, storage, and computing power to handle their data. This reduces the need for physical data centres and servers that you need to buy, own and maintain. These technologies are known as cloud computing layers. 

Two people sharing documents in the cloud icon

  • Cloud technology
  • What is cloud technology
  • Cloud benefits
  • Cloud deployment models
  • Cloud computing layers
  • Connected cloud

Illustration of the different cloud layer types: BPO, SaaS, PaaS and IaaS

​How does cloud computing work?

There was no new breakthrough hardware or software technology that suddenly opened up for cloud computing. It was rather a new way of connecting well-known technologies and concepts. 

These technologies are known as cloud computing layers, and we can divide them into four categories, or layers: 

  • Infrastructure (IaaS)
  • Platform (PaaS)
  • Software (SaaS)
  • BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)


You might also be interested in reading our blog article about cloud computing layers.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The very first and basic layer of cloud computing is Infrastructure as a service (Iaas). Infrastructure as a Service means that you rent IT infrastructure from a cloud provider, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services. This happens on a pay-as-you-go term, meaning you only pay for what you use.

It is a cloud computing offering where a vendor provides users access to resources such as storage, data servers, and networking. This means organisations don’t need to handle that in-house. 

Infrastructure as a Service consist of both hardware and network, such as servers and storage, networking firewalls and security, and data centres. That means that organisations and businesses can use their own applications and platforms within the infrastructure that is delivered by a service provider. 





With IaaS, businesses can quickly set up and run test and development environments. This can help them bring new application offerings to the market faster. It also enables businesses to perform big data analysis, and better handle storage needs as the business grows. Lastly, it simplifies the management of backup systems. 

Renting the IT infrastructure from a cloud provider gives organisations several advantages such as: 

  • Reduced upfront expenses of setting up and managing on-site data centres, and reduced ongoing cost
  • Improved disaster recovery, business continuity, and innovation
  • Better security, stability, and reliability

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The second layer of the cloud is the platform – the PaaS (Platform as a service). This layer is a development and deployment environment in the cloud and provides the resources to actually build applications. 

Just like IaaS, Paas includes infrastructure, but it also includes development tools, database management systems, middleware, business intelligence, and more. It is designed to support the entire web application lifecycle—from building and testing to deployment, management and updating. 

 

 

In combination with Infrastructure as a Service, PaaS, therefore, provides the ability to develop, test, run, and host applications.

With Platform as a Service, businesses get even more advantages than the ones they are getting from Infrastructure as a Service. These advantages include developing for multiple platforms more easily. It also includes cutting down on the coding time with pre-coded application components already built into the platform.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

The third cloud layer is the actual Software – the SaaS (Software as a service). This is the layer that provides a complete software solution. Organisations rent the use of an app, and the users connect to it via the internet, usually with a web browser. 

In a cloud setting, SaaS is therefore the layer where the user consumes the offering from the service provider. It must be web-based and accessible from everywhere and preferably on any device. The service provider manages the hardware and software.

One type of SaaS is web-based email services such as Outlook, Gmail, and Hotmail. Here, the email software is located on the service provider’s network–together with your messages.

 

 

Organisations can rent different business applications. Some examples of business applications are enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and document management.

For businesses, that means they can invest in sophisticated enterprise applications without having to set them up and maintain them. The service provider then purchases, install, update and maintain hardware, middleware, and software. This makes it more affordable for all businesses, and they also only need to pay for the services they actually use. 

It also gives huge advantages to remote work because users can access information and data from anywhere, anytime.

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)

This is the top layer of the cloud – BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). BPO refers to the process in which a company outsources standard business functions to a third-party provider. This is often done to save time and money on removing that in-house administrative task. 

 

This can be business functions such as accounting and payroll, customer service, and human resource management. More and more companies are looking to outsource their non-core activities to third-party service providers to save time and money using the cloud. 

Since BPO is not a technology like the other cloud layers, there is an ongoing debate whether BPO should be regarded as a cloud layer at all. We believe that it should since it deals with vendor services, just like the other layers do.

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