CaaS vs IaaS | What’s the difference?

Cloud computing is the best way forward for numerous businesses across the world today. It produces a wide range of benefits including higher cost savings, better quality control, and disaster recovery, and enhanced collaboration. But, choosing the right type of cloud computing is quite important for businesses of all sizes. 

It is a choice that has to be made depending on their specific operational and productivity needs. CaaS and IaaS are two of the most widely-used cloud computing services available today. Better understand the differences between CaaS vs IaaS can be challenging for most business owners. Take a look at the information given below to get a better idea about which to opt for. 

Containers vs Virtual Machines

Before you continue reading you must understand the differences between a Container and a VM – Virtual Machine. This is key to learn how a CaaS and an IaaS will operate.

Virtual machines operate in a hypervisor environment where each virtual machine must include a unique OS inside it.

On the other hand Containers share the same Operating System. Looks as a small difference, but it allows containers to be lighter and start faster in comparison to a VM.

What is an IaaS?

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) refers to a cloud computing model where the vendor is responsible for hosting the infrastructure for their customers. The infrastructure is hosted in a cloud across the service provider’s data centers.

Customers again access the designated IaaS cloud infrastructure through the Internet for creating and hosting web applications, data storage, or business logic execution. IaaS enables customers to perform most actions that can be performed through on-premise infrastructure. IaaS enables business owners to perform agile application deployments without making high infrastructure enhancements.

Key Advantages of IaaS

You Trade CAPEX for OPEX

IaaS offers lower infrastructure costs for users while offering efficient cloud computing, minimizing downtime, and eliminating equipment upgrades. It takes away the need for expending resources in the maintenance of network and hardware. Businesses prefer the convenience and value provided by IaaS.

Scalable Infrastructure

IaaS reduces the need for software and hardware upgrades and addresses equipment issues. Scaling up or down is instantaneous based on the requirements of a business. Users can easily get more storage, get access to the latest technology, and powerful servers.

Reliability

Uptime guarantees for most vendor are quite high! Here are some examples:

• DigitalOcean will deliver 99.99% uptime time guarantee (that’s less than 1 hour per year).
• AWS provides 99.99% monthly uptime.
• Google Cloud 99.99% for zones and 99.5% for instances.

No Upfront Hard Costs

Reduced expenditure on hardware and software infrastructure helps an organization move towards better growth. The third-party who is handling the IaaS services for your business takes care of all scalability needs.

Flexibility

IaaS setups cater to the increased flexibility demands of today’s workspaces, making them suitable for many organizations. IaaS enables swift on-the-go data access and quick functionality. 

Top 3 IaaS Providers

AWS

Amazon web service (AWS) offers IaaS services that are scalable, reliable, and has an easy learning curve. It is relied upon by businesses across the globe as a cost-efficient and reliable cloud computing solution.

Google Cloud Platform – GCP

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) from Google is an IaaS cloud computing service that uses the same Google infrastructure used by Gmail and Search. It provides a wide range of reliable cloud-based computing, storage, and analysis features.

Digital Ocean

Digital Ocean is a cloud hosting service provider that offers IaaS services to clients through its agile, high-performance, and easy-to-use virtual servers. It is preferred by many businesses due to their low price packages and fast startup times.

What is a CaaS – Container as a Service?

CaaS or Containers as a Service refers to a cloud computing service model, enabling activities like uploading, streamlining, resuming, stopping, and scaling of applications, clusters, and containers. Container-type virtualization, web portal interfaces, and APIs are used for performing CaaS processes.

CaaS computing services let users build secure, container-based applications through the cloud or on-premises data centers. The CaaS model works through container and cluster deployments within data centers.

Key Advantages of a CaaS

Containers Save You Money

CaaS model containers require fewer resources compared to a Virtual Machine setup. Users can run multiple containers on a single server due to the resource-efficient nature. This leads to lower data center costs, reduced bare metal costs, and hardware expenditure. Reduced chances of technical issues also add to the cost-efficiency benefits of CaaS models.

Horizontal Scaling Made Easy

Containers enable users to perform horizontal scaling to utilize multiple identical containers within the same cluster. Scaling enables users to use only required containers when necessary, cutting expenses as a result. 

CaaS Increases Security Levels

CaaS offers ample security for users due to the isolated structure of containers. Problems occurring with one application do not affect applications within other containers. Application processes being executed in isolation from operating systems also make CaaS a secure model. 

You can switch environments easily using a CaaS

A container has everything required for an application to run including its configuration files. The portability of CaaS enables users to seamlessly perform private and public application launches. It also makes CaaS quite flexible and environment switching convenient. 

Containers are lightning fast

Container start times are lightning fast, along with the time taken for creating, replicating, or destroying containers. It can be said that in CaaS, development processes are fast, leading to faster time to market and swift version releases. The speed of CaaS also enables users to offer better customer experiences and fast bug resolutions.

Development efficiency

A container-based CaaS infrastructure enables streamlined development. Applications can be executed like those that are built locally. This reduces the chance of inconsistencies, enhances the speeds of testing and debugging. Application updates are also quite efficient in a CaaS model. 

Top 3 CaaS Providers

Google Kubernetes Engine

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) gives users a managed environment for the deployment, management, and scaling of container-based applications. It uses Google infrastructure and has several machines within a cluster.

Amazon EC2 Container Service

Amazon EC2 Container Service is a container management service with support for Docker containers. It enables users to execute distributed apps on managed Amazon EC2 instance clusters. 

Mirantis Cloud Platform

Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP) is a CaaS service provider with OpenStack, Kubernetes, VMs, and bare-metal containers. It is a cloud-based software stack.

CaaS vs IaaS | Comparison

Conclusion

This article explained the differences between a IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service and a CaaS – Container as a Service.

A IaaS provider will primarily deliver on-demand VM – Virtual Machines, let you trade expensive physical hardware for Opex services, and let scale up and down VMs without hassles.

A CaaS provider will deliver a managed service for running containers, makes easier horizontal scaling, and enhances the security and portability levels of applications.

General FAQ