A company wants to use computing resources over the internet without managing physical servers. The cloud provider manages the underlying hardware and virtualization, while the company manages the operating system, middleware, and applications. Which cloud service model does this describe?
Trap 1: Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS delivers fully managed applications over the internet (e.g., Gmail, Salesforce). The customer manages nothing except data and user access — the provider manages everything from hardware to the application.
Trap 2: Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS provides a managed runtime environment where the customer deploys applications without managing OS or middleware. App Engine is Google's PaaS — the customer manages code and data, not the infrastructure below.
Trap 3: Function as a Service (FaaS)
FaaS (serverless) provides event-driven execution of individual functions — the provider manages everything except the function code. This is more managed than IaaS.
- A
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Why wrong: SaaS delivers fully managed applications over the internet (e.g., Gmail, Salesforce). The customer manages nothing except data and user access — the provider manages everything from hardware to the application.
- B
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS provides virtualized compute, storage, and networking. The provider manages physical infrastructure; the customer manages OS, middleware, and applications. Compute Engine is Google's IaaS offering.
- C
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Why wrong: PaaS provides a managed runtime environment where the customer deploys applications without managing OS or middleware. App Engine is Google's PaaS — the customer manages code and data, not the infrastructure below.
- D
Function as a Service (FaaS)
Why wrong: FaaS (serverless) provides event-driven execution of individual functions — the provider manages everything except the function code. This is more managed than IaaS.