IJECT Vol.

4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013

ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)

Comparison of Cloud Computing Service

Models: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS
1

Sumit Khurana, 2Anmol Gaurav Verma

1,2

Dept. of CSE, Surya World, Punjab, India

Abstract
Cloud computing brings advancement in the field of information
technology. Cloud computing is based on several service models
such as SaaS, PaaS, NaaS, DbaaS, IaaS and many more. In order
to make clear the essential of cloud computing, we propose the
characteristics of these service models which distinguish cloud
computing from other research areas .These service models are
compared from various angles in order to clearly define there origin,
working, advantages, disadvantages and limitations from existing
other service models. On the other hand, these service models are
classified on various stages to differentiate there characteristics
from several other service models. This paper strives to compare
and contrast the three major service models i.e. software-as-aservice, platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service from
various angles and give insight into essential characteristics of
these three service models.
Keywords
Cloud Computing, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, PaaS, NaaS, DbaaS
I. Introduction
Cloud computing is giving a start to new computing techniques
in which local computers are not being used for computational
processes as centralized facilities have overcome local computers
which are being operated by cloud providers or by third-party
computational and storage providers. Well said by JOHN
McCARTHY that computation may someday be organized as a
public utility as we wont have to unwrap the shrink-wrapped
software for installing them into our pcs. The new idea is much
more advanced than our approach.The term cloud computing refers
to delivery of computing resources over the internet. It allows user
to store there data over the internet instead of storing it into a
hard drive. Cloud services allow consumers and businesses to use
software and hardware managed by third party at remote locations.
Cloud computing provides shared pool of resources(example:
networks, storage, computer processing, user applications) that
can be rapidly provisioned and can be released with minimal effort.
There are several benefits of cloud computing such as cost savings,
scalability, reliability, maintenance, mobile accessible etc. These
benefits enhance the user to use cloud services widely and store
their data over internet instead of storing into a hard drive. Instead
of several benefits these services also have certain challenges
including security and privacy, lack of standards, service delivery
and billing, interoperability and probability, performance and
bandwidth cost and availability.
Companies are increasingly aware of the business value that cloud
computing brings and are taking steps towards transition to the
cloud. A smooth transition entails a thorough understanding of the
benefits as well as challenges involved. Like any new technology,
the adoption of cloud computing is not free from issues

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II. Characteristics of Cloud

A. On Demand Self Service
On demand self service refers to services requested by the
customers to manage their own computing resources. These
services are provided over the internet by a cloud provider to a
customer who has requested for services and can manage their
own computing resources.
B. Resource Pooling
Cloud computing provides shared pool of resources that can be
rapidly provisioned and can be released with minimal effort.
Customers draw resources from remote data centers.
C. Rapid Elasticity
As cloud computing provides services over the internet. These
services can be managed or can be requested from cloud providers
as per customers requirement. Rapid elasticity refers to services
which can be smaller or larger as per user requirement.
D. Measured Service
These are services which are billed according to customer demand
for definite services. As customers can request for services as per
their own requirement, services are billed according to customers
demand.
III. Service Models of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a computational process in which services are
delivered over a network using computing resources. The name
cloud symbolises an abstraction for complex infrastructure it
contains in system diagrams.
There are three main types of service models: [1]
Software as a Service (SaaS).
Platform as a Service (PaaS).
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Business models using software as a service, multiple application
software and databases are provided to users. Infrastructure and
platforms on which applications run are managed by cloud
providers. Saas is also called as on-demand software and is
priced on pay-per-use basis. Saas allows a business to reduce
IT operational costs by outsourcing hardware and software
maintenance and support to the cloud provider. This enables the
business to reallocate IT operational cost from hardware /software
and personnel expenses, for achieving other IT goals. A web
browser or a light-weight desktop or mobile application Is required
for accessing cloud-based applications by end users. Servers at
a remote location are required to store business software and
users data. The improved manageability and less maintenance,
and enables IT more rapidly to meet fluctuating and unpredictable
business demand [2].

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IJECT Vol. 4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013

ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)

B. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
It is another type of service model of cloud computing which
provides a computing platform and solution stack as a service.
In this model user or consumers creates a software using tools
or libraries from the providers. Consumer also controls software
deployment and configuration settings. Main aim of provider
is to provide networks, servers, storage and other services.[9]
PaaS offers deployment of applications by reducing the cost and
complexity of buying and maintaining hardware and software and
provisioning hosting capabilities [10]. There are various types of
PaaS vendors which offer application hosting and a deployment
environment along with various integrated services. The services
offers scalability and maintenace [11].

Fig. 1:
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
On-demand software generally called as Software-as-a-Service
is a software delivery model in which software and associated data
are hosted on the cloud. Using a web browser SaaS is accessed
by users.Now a days many business applications use SaaS as
a common delivery model including accounting, collaboration,
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and service desk
management [3]. In 2010, SaaS sales reached 10 billion $ and
increased to 12.1billion $ in 2011 i.e. 20.7% up from 2010. By
2015 SaaS revenue will be more than double from 2010 scale
according to Gartner Group and may reach upto 21.3$ billion.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) leads to be the
largest market for SaaS [4]. SaaS revenue within CRM market
was forecast to reach $3.8 billion in 2011, up from $3.2 billion in
2010.[5]The term software as a service is considered to be the
part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with platform
as a service and infrastructure as a service and Backend as a
service (BaaS) [6]
VI. Architecture
Software as a Service model is based on multi-tenant architecture.
This model enables all customers (tenants) to use single version
application with single configuration. To avoid conflicts and provide
scalability, application is installed on multiple machines.In some
cases, SaaS do not use multi-tenancy. They use other mechanisms
such as virtualization where a large number of customers are
managed in place of multi-tenancy.Some SaaS solutions do not use
multi-tenancy, or use other mechanisms-such as virtualization-to
cost-effectively manage a large number of customers in place of
multi-tenancy [7].
VII. Criticism
Richard Stallman of Free Software Foundation conasiders the use
of SaaS to be violating the principles of free software [8].
A. According to Stallman
As the executable file is on the server, the users cant touch or see
it. It is impossible for users to modify or alter there data. SaaS
provides power to the server operator to modify or alter data
from software in use rather than giving user a chance.User have
to send their data to the server in order to use it. This is similar
as that of spyware as server operator has the only power to alter
the data in the software.

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International Journal of Electronics & Communication Technology

VIII. Types
A. Add-on development facilities: these facilities allow
customization of software as a service applications which are
equivalent to macro language customization with software
applications such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Word. Stand alone
development environment: these do not include technical, licensing
or financial dependencies on SaaS applications. Application
delivery only environment: these do not include development,
debugging and test capabilities as a part of service. These services
generally focus on security and on-demand scalability. Open
platform as a service. This type of PaaS provides open source
software to allow a PaaS provider to run applications. Example,
AppScale allows a user to deploy some applications written for
google app engine to their own servers, providing data store access
from standard SQL database.
IX. Key Characterstics
Multi-tenant architecture: this architecture maintains a trust
relationship between the users in security, access, distribution of
source code, navigation history, user profiles, interaction history
and application usage.
Integration with web services and databases: PaaS offers to
create composition of multiple web services. These services
access databases and re-use services maintained inside private
networks.
A. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure is the foundation of cloud computing. It provides
delivery of computing as a shared service reducing the investment
cost, operational and maintenance of hardware. Infrastructure
should be reliable and flexible for easy implementation and
operations of applications
X. Characterstics
Delivery of resources such as servers, storage and network
components as a service. Lower total cost of ownership. Full
scalability. Eliminate the need for administration and maintenance
of hardware. Enterprise grade infrastructure for all subscribers.
IaaS cloud offers resources such as images in a virtual-machine
image -library, raw and file -based storage, firewalls, load balancers,
IP addresses, virtual local networks and software bundles.
Examples of IaaS providers are Amazon cloud formation, amazon
EC2, google compute engine, HP cloud, iland, joyent, oracle
infrastructure as a service and rackspace cloud.

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IJECT Vol. 4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013

ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)

XI. Comparison
Viewed broadly, the concepts of SaaS, IaaS and PaaS seems to have similar features. In this section, we put light on key features of
SaaS, IaaS and PaaS and give an end-to-end comparison to differentiate in different perspectives.
Table 1: Cross-Concept Matrix of the Three Classifications of Cloud Computing
Paradigm
shift

Infrastructure
as a Service
(IaaS)

Platform as
a Service
(PaaS)

SaaS

Characteristics

Key terms

Avoid capital
expenditure
Usually platform- Grid computing,
on hardware
independent;
utility computing,
and human
infrastructure costs compute instance,
resources;
Infrastructure are shared and thus hypervisor,
reduced ROI
as an asset
reduced; service
cloudbursting,
risk; low
level agreements
multi-tenant
barriers to entry;
(SLAs); pay by
computing,
streamlined
usage; self-scaling resource pooling
and automated
scaling
Consumes cloud
infrastructure;
Streamlined
License
caters to
Solution stack
version
purchasing
agile project
deployment
management
methods
Avoid capital
SLAs; UI powered
expenditure on
by thin client
software and
applications; cloud
Software
development
components;
Thin client;
as an asset
client-server
resources;
communication
(business and
reduced ROI
via APIs; stateless; application
consumer)
risk; streamlined
loosely coupled;
and iterative
modular; semantic
updates
interoperability

XII. Conclusion
The concept of cloud computing comes from the network diagrams
illustrating the Internet as a cloud, where it is not possible, or
not important, to know the information path. While the main
reasons for adopting services based on cloud computing are cost
saving, flexibility and start-up speed, there are still doubts about
the security guarantees and the portability and integration options
offered by this model of services.
The services offered in any of the cloud computing models
(platform, infrastructure or software as a service) are closely
related to mobility and, therefore, depend heavily on the continuity
of the connectivity, the quality of the service and the security
offered by the networks for an optimal user experience.
Cloud computing provides companies with new options for
managing infrastructures and new business models. In particular, it
can mean a big improvement for small and medium-size companies,
for whom the cloud represents the opportunity to reduce costs
in administration and in maintaining proprietary infrastructures,
providing them with technological possibilities similar to those
of large companies. Doubts over the security and management
of these new systems, however, may slow the uptake in the short
term.For this reason, the objectives of the TaaS project focus on
three main areas:
Contribution to the family of IEEE 802 standards for making the
handovers between the networks of different providers or even
different technologies transparent for the applications. Adaptation
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Advantages

Disadvantages and
risks
Business efficiency
and productivity
largely depends
on the vendors
capabilities;
potentially greater
long-term cost;
centralization
requires new/
different security
measures

When not
to use
When
capital
budget is
greater
than
operating
budget

Centralization
requires new/
different security
measures

N/A

Centralization of
data requires new/
different security
measures

N/A

of the identity and access management (IAM) services to guarantee

the security of the services provided in any of the cloud computing
models (services for the cloud). Adaptation and migration of
the trust services so that they can be managed and offered from
the cloud, principally, to make them accessible for SMEs and
organizations that need them from time to time (services in the
cloud).
References
[1] Monaco, Ania (7 June 2012[last update]),"A view inside
the cloud, The institute.ieu.org(IEEE) retrieved august 21,
2012.
[2] Baburajan, Rajani,The rising cloud storage market
opportunity strengthens vendors, IT.tmcnet.com. 2011-0824. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
[3] Software as a service(SaaS), Cloud Taxonomy. Retrieved
24 April 2011.
[4] McHall, Tom (7 July 2011),Gartner says worldwide software
as a service revenue is forecast to grow 21 percent in 2011,
Gartner.com. Gartner. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
[5] Barret, Larry (27 July 2010),SaaS Market growing by Leaps
and Bounds.
[6] Anderson, Tim (5 May 2011),Full form of SaaS, The
Register.

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ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)

[7] Stallman, Richard (18 March 2010),Who does that server

really serve?, Boston review. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
[8] The NIST definition of Cloud Computing, National Institute
of Science and Technology", Retrieved 24July 2011.
[9] Google angles for business users with,"Platform as a
service".
[10] Comparing Amazons and Googles Platform-as-a-service
(PaaS) offerings| Enterprise Web 2.0| ZDNet.com.
[11] Cloud platform as a service (PaaS) in cloud computing
services. Cloud Computing Sec. 2011. Retrieved 2011-1215.

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