What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS, is a cloud computing model where a provider offers basic computing infrastructure such as virtual machines, storage, networking, and firewalls.

What IaaS gives you

With IaaS, the customer usually controls the operating system, applications, data, and configuration, while the provider runs the physical data centers and hardware. It is useful when teams want flexibility without buying servers.

IaaS compared with other cloud models

IaaS is more infrastructure-focused than PaaS or SaaS. It is often the cloud model closest to managing traditional servers, except the hardware is rented on demand.

In simple terms, IaaS is renting the foundation of computing instead of building a server room yourself.