IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provides customers with infrastructure-based tools, such as networking, security, servers, and operating systems. One advantage of using IaaS is that the organization that seeks cloud services is at liberty to upgrade its own software systems. Consequently, an organization can implement useful/specific software upgrades in the course of its software-development. Another advantage of using IaaS is that customers can be able to pay for only the services that they use. IaaS allows organizations to share the costs of services that individual-organizations could not afford. IaaS also eases the management of infrastructure-based products because tasks, such as introduction of new releases and management of data centers, are handled by cloud providers.
One disadvantage of using IaaS is that organizations have to pay for the additional costs that accompany software upgrades. In addition, organizations are also required to cater for the maintenance costs of database systems. Another disadvantage of using IaaS is that there may be legal restrictions against using foreign-based cloud providers. Another disadvantage of IaaS is that security features provided by the cloud provider may not meet the needs of the customers (Karry, 2014). Furthermore, IaaS cloud providers offer non-flexible speeds between customers’ and cloud-software operations.
IaaS and Load Balancing
Load balancing is “a core networking solution that is responsible for distributing incoming traffic among servers that host the same application content” (Citrix Services, 2014). Load balancing has the capacity to eliminate centralized failures in a computer network. Several tools can act as load balancers including IaaS. IaaS can be used to improve the application infrastructure of any organization. One way of accomplishing this task is by replacing load-balancing servers with a dedicated alternative infrastructure system. The alternative infrastructure system includes a combination of physical and virtual units.
Redundancy and Load Balancing
Redundancy in computing refers to the methods that are used to protect a computer system from possible failure. There are several levels of system redundancy, but they all depend on the amount and types of equipments that are used to harness a network. IaaS can be used to provide redundancy services to organizations. Some IaaS providers deliver full redundancy services to their customers by replicating customers’ entire systems. This tactic ensures that when customers’ systems fail, their services are shifted to the redundant IaaS infrastructure.
Types of servers and IaaS
A physical server is an actual machine that is usually positioned in the cloud provider’s premises, and its functionality is usually supplemented by cloud service. A dedicated virtual server refers to a machine that is provided by a cloud provider, and its renter is at liberty to use it in any way. A customer who rents a dedicated server is given a sizeable data and bandwidth capacity. In addition, dedicated servers can be loaded with any type of software. A shared virtual server refers to a machine that is used by several users in different networks. Access to virtual shared servers is limited to system administrators, and not all the types of resources can be installed in this type of server. Amazon charges $0.095 per Gigabyte every month as a rent for a physical server. The rent rates for Amazon’s virtual dedicated servers are between $0.113 and $6.82 per hour depending on data capacity. On the other hand, Rackspace rents out physical servers for as low as $0.10 per Gigabyte every month. Furthermore, Rackspace rents out virtual shared servers for between $0.04 and $5.44 per hour.
References
Citrix Services. (2014). What is Load Balancing?. Web.
Karry, D. (2014). Service Architecture. Web.