Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Definition: Provider provisions processing, storage, networks, and resources
- Customer manages: OS, storage, deployed applications
- Provider manages: Underlying physical infrastructure
- Key characteristics:
- VMs with configurable CPU/RAM/storage
- Pay-as-you-go model
- Customer has maximum control over infrastructure
- Operation:
- Customer requests VM(s) with specific resource configuration
- Provider matches against available physical machines
- Resources are allocated when available
- Dynamic scaling based on demand
- Examples:
- AWS EC2, Google Compute Engine
- Azure VMs, OpenStack
- API capabilities: Create, start, stop, clone, monitor VMs