IaaS, PaaS, SaaS in simple terms

Azure Chronicles for Dummies

I was just dumb enough to remember the difference between IaaS, PaaS & SaaS, so I decided to sketch it out ;)

IaaS means that somebody else is guaranteeing you the infrastructure (i.e. servers and OS) and they are taking care of running, updating, backing up, etc. Everything else is up to you (i.e. installing software on it)

PaaS means that somebody else is providing you the Infrastructure AND Platform. A perfect example is Azure SQL Database - Azure provides you with always up to data SQL Server, without requiring you to do ANY administration work!

SaaS means that somebody else is doing all the dirty work and all you need to do is enjoy the software! Office 365 is a perfect example - you get to use Office in your browser, while someone else is making sure that it's running, bugs are fixed, load is balanced, etc.

Wondering what's next? I'd bet on AIaaS - we pay for AI to do all the work for us, while we enjoy doing whatever the heck amuses us!