What is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)?

When we talk to people about their IT infrastructure, the thing that surprises them most is discovering just how big it is. They simply don’t know.

Infrastructure tends to grow. As new products and projects are launched, infrastructure is added to support them, but rarely is it taken away. You end up with an unwieldy estate, with limited visibility of what’s there, what’s been duplicated in error, or what is now redundant. There are missed opportunities because organisations buy infrastructure and only use a small proportion of its capabilities. Uptime is critical but managing the infrastructure yourself is hard.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offers an alternative approach. Instead of attempting to operate and maintain infrastructure yourself, you outsource it. It’s a flexible model, so it can be used for managing your existing infrastructure or might include providing dedicated or shared infrastructure together with the services to operate it.

In our definition, infrastructure means anything that delivers IT capabilities, except for user devices and networks. Infrastructure includes data centres, and servers at both the hardware and software levels. We also offer Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) and Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) alongside IaaS, so we can deliver end-to-end IT capabilities.

There are several advantages of IaaS:

• It’s more cost-effective because you can achieve better infrastructure utilisation and get the efficiencies of outsourcing.
• It’s simpler, because your single IaaS provider takes responsibility for delivering the infrastructure capabilities you need, including operations, maintenance, and security.
• It’s easier to budget for, because you migrate away from large hardware expenditures to regular, predictable payments that smooth out the costs.

Not all IaaS services are the same. Some will keep the lights on and comply with the service level agreement, but not do much more.

When we deliver IaaS, we think it’s important to continuously drive out waste. Through our real-time observability tools and methodologies, we identify opportunities to reuse or remove infrastructure, which helps to cut costs, stop the uncontrolled expansion of IT, and halt the growth of technical debt. You might be paying for licences for a system that only houses 2% of your data, for example, so if we can consolidate that somewhere else, you can cut licence costs by 10%.

Infrastructure is a critical enabler for whatever the business wants to do, and that changes over time. That’s why it’s vital to have an IaaS provider who understands the need to adapt.

Imagine a fast food outlet, for example. It might start as a restaurant with dine-in and take-away options and till service. Later, it might add a drive-through, where people order and pay through automated kiosks, with cameras used for security and service management. Later still, online ordering might be added, requiring a flow of data from the website to the kitchen.

As the business evolves, there are implications for the infrastructure that the kiosks, tills, website, and other systems depend on. A good IaaS provider will take on a consultancy role, discussing the customer experience you aim to deliver now, in the near future, and in the far future. They can then advise on the implications for your infrastructure. In this way, they help you to lay reliable foundations to support your digital transformation and customer experience evolution.

One of the reasons that infrastructure optimisation is a wasted opportunity in so many organisations is that it’s been filed in the “time-consuming and difficult” box. Nobody in the organisation dares to go there. We’re willing to open that box and give you back control of your infrastructure and its budget.

NSC Global