On-Premises versus Cloud Computing – Pizza as a Service
As technology freaks, we tend to live in a world of acronyms and terms that are very common to those of us in the industry. But this abbreviated language can seem like a foreign language to outsiders. We recently had a conversation about cloud computing and its impact on application development and operations. In addition to SOA, REST and JSON, the trend from IaaS to PaaS to SaaS was also discussed, which supports or simplifies the paradigm shift to DevOps.
My customer asked me «What is IaaS, PaaS or SaaS» and I answered without thinking too much about his question «These are TLA's». Then he continued to look at me questioningly and I realized that he did not understand the joke «TLA», which stands for «Three Letter Acronym». At Microsoft, we had a 300-page Microsoft Press book that lists and explains the common acronyms.
«A picture says more than a thousand words and analogies to the familiar deepen the understanding of it»
In my consulting work, I was repeatedly faced with the challenge of explaining complex relationships to an outside audience. The foundation of cloud computing and the associated IT service delivery models «X as a Services» is a good example of this.
«What is IaaS, PaaS and SaaS?»
In words, «aaS» is an IT service delivery model that describes the way in which a standardized IT service is provided to customers. For which parts he is responsible himself and which parts he purchases from a service provider as a finished product (service).
«Pizza as a Service analogy»
Pizza as a Service - On Premise, IaaS, PaaS and SaaS terms simply explained using a pizza menu and its different ways of preparation.
Simply visualized by the different ways to prepare a pizza. «Pizza as a Service» in the four ways of preparation:
- Homemade: You can prepare your own pizza at home. This requires you to buy all the ingredients yourself, prepare the dough and prepare the pizza at home and serve it to your guests. On-Premise = I take care of everything myself.
- Take & Bake prepare ready-made pizza at home: You can buy some of the ingredients and pizza dough and prepare the pizza at home and serve it to your guests. Infrastructure as a Service = I buy finished products and take care of the rest myself.
- Pizza delivery service: You can order your pizza through a pizza delivery service and deliver it to your home and serve it to your guests. Platform as a Services = I have everything delivered to me and only ensure the dining opportunity for my guests.
- Dined Out eating out in the pizzeria: You can invite your guests to a pizzeria and have the pizza served to you and enjoy it with a glass of red wine. Software as a Service = I get EVERYTHING from a service provider and enjoy the pizza and the guests.
In all cases you enjoy the pizza with your guests, but in some you take little personal responsibility and obtain the service from external providers.
«A picture is worth a thousand words!», Many thanks to Albert Barron, software architect, who was the first published the Pizza as a Service analogy.
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