While the cloud is often referred to in singular fashion, the reality is that enterprises looking to embrace cloud computing can choose from some very different approaches, each providing specific benefits—and challenges. This paper will describe IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, revealing the unique characteristics of these cloud service delivery models. In addition, it will detail the distinct monitoring responsibilities and challenges of each model, and describe the specific capabilities organizations need to maximize the benefits of their cloud implementations.
The hype surrounding cloud computing has been enormous, but this is a case where the reality may in fact eclipse some of the most optimistic projections—the potential is that significant. Enterprises of virtually every size and type either already have or soon will be adopting cloud services in some fashion. Cloud adoption is already pervasive when factoring in SaaS services, which have been mainstays in hundreds of thousands of enterprises since long before the “cloud” terminology materialized. Further, analysts predict that, by 2012, cloud-based services will account for at least 50% of the new demand for managed IT infrastructure services.
