In a highly competitive environment, companies need to focus on their know-how. Having an in-house team responsible for building, deploying and maintaining an IT infrastructure is no longer systematically the best solution. IT architecture needs to be managed as a service, in order to benefit from innovation and flexibility. This is what IaaS is all about.
It's obvious today: data is the fuel of every business. The pipes through which it travels are therefore of less interest.
Owning your entire IT infrastructure or renting fixed server space in a datacenter no longer corresponds to today's world. Servers or data centers can be used as a service, just like software. This is the principle of "Infrastructure-as-a-Service".
The Infrastructure-as-a-Service principle
This is a standardized, highly automated offering. IT resources, supplemented by storage and networking capabilities, are owned and hosted by a provider, and offered in the form of packages (hourly, weekly or monthly). As with any online service, companies can manage their cloud infrastructure from a graphical interface.
In a nutshell, IaaS means working with virtualized computing resources. Such as operating systems, storage space, computing resources (CPU) or additional random access memory (RAM)...
The different types
They are very classic, yet capable of meeting the expectations or constraints of every company.
- Public mode: several clients share resources.
- Private mode: virtualization technologies and services are reserved for a single organization (no mixing of data with other companies).
- Hybrid mode: combining physical and virtual infrastructure in the public or private cloud. This option offers greater flexibility. A company can manage its own server locally, while benefiting from the scalability of cloud technologies (for example, by temporarily using computing power).
The 2 main uses
- Agile projects: It enables applications to be developed more quickly and tests to be automatically multiplied.
- Replacing a datacenter: this operation is carried out progressively, starting with development environments or less critical production applications.
The benefits of IaaS
They are identical to the cloud. The main IaaS platforms offer greater scalability, a wide choice of technological options and a higher level of security than an SME could hope to achieve.
A reduction in costs (including those linked to hardware downtime) is also cited as one of the advantages of this model. But as with any migration to the cloud, it's essential to have a precise dashboard, updated in real time, to truly measure ROI.
Take a look at: How can the Cloud optimize your investment strategy?
Last but not least, this model allows you to take advantage of a PRA (Plan de Reprise d'Activité) or PCA (Plan de Continuité d'Activité) that is easier to set up than if managed in-house.
Replicating IT resources in the cloud makes it easier to restart business. This is not always the case when servers are installed in a company that has suffered water damage...
IaaS and data security
The protection and confidentiality of sensitive information are still the main obstacles to cloud adoption. Even if providers offer high levels of security and availability, companies need to put safeguards in place:
- Access and profile control: like all remote access, this model requires an authentication policy (and in particular double authentication) for users and administrators. Connections must be made via a VPN. This private channel prevents malicious interception or intrusion.
- Security features: the supplier must integrate a range of protections (against Ddos attacks, among others), a managed firewall, full daily backup of VMs on a dedicated infrastructure...
- Data localization: companies need to ensure that the IT resources used in this model are located in France.
IaaS has its advantages. But it's essential to think things through beforehand, to assess your real needs and the concrete benefits.
