Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a model of service delivery whereby one or more applications and the computational resources to run them are provided for use on demand as a turnkey service. Its main purpose is to reduce the total cost of hardware and software development, maintenance, and operations. Security provisions are carried out mainly by the cloud provider.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a model of service delivery whereby the computing platform is provided as an on-demand service upon which applications can be developed and deployed. Its main purpose is to reduce the cost and complexity of buying, housing, and managing the underlying hardware and software components of the platform, including any needed program and database development tools. The cloud consumer has control over applications and application environment settings of the platform. Security provisions are split between the cloud provider and the cloud consumer.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is a model of service delivery whereby the basic computing infrastructure of servers, software, and network equipment is provided as an on-demand service upon which a platform to develop and execute applications can be established. Its main purpose is to avoid purchasing, housing, and managing the basic hardware and software infrastructure components, and instead obtain those resources as virtualized objects controllable via a service interface. Security provisions beyond the basic infrastructure are carried out mainly by the cloud consumer.
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