The Cost-Saving Benefits Of IaaS (Infrastructure As A Service)

The shift towards cloud computing rather than on-site infrastructure has been going at a steady pace. And this trend shows signs of increasing if more businesses were made aware of the cost-saving benefits that adoption can bring.

Spending on IaaS (infrastructure as a service) is expanding at a faster rate than any other area of the cloud market, with growth being driven by the need for businesses to make IT budgets as efficient as possible. But what are the cost-saving benefits of IaaS and is it really possible for almost any business to access them today?

Procurement

The first cost you face when creating an IT infrastructure that runs in house is one associated with hardware procurement. You will typically need to invest in server components, network hardware and a variety of other potentially expensive bits of kit for even the most basic of set-ups.

This usually means that smaller businesses are prevented from indulging in ambitious and potentially beneficial projects because of prohibitively expensive hardware elements.

With IaaS, the provider takes care of procuring hardware and businesses are able to harness high-end set-ups at low cost because of the economies of scale that are in play.

Installation

When a company decides to keep everything in house, it is required not only to work out how infrastructural hardware needs to be installed, but also where it should be installed. That puts pressure on technical staff and means that managers need to worry about handing over a certain amount of space within an office to IT equipment.

There is, of course, a cost associated with the procurement of IT hardware that can be eliminated thanks to IaaS providers. Not only will the data centre hardware powering your services have been installed by competent engineers, but it will also be based in an environment that is conducive to long-term operation. Meanwhile, you can free up space in the office and avoid being lumbered with other charges associated with in-house hosting.

Maintenance

After procurement and installation, the infrastructural elements of your IT set-up will invariably require constant care and attention. This usually means that you need at least one full-time staff member to tackle maintenance, although more than one technician or engineer may be required to help keep downtime to a minimum.

Once again the smaller companies will find that their resources may not stretch far enough to allow for such thorough IT maintenance, which in the past would have meant that they could not compete on a level playing field with better-funded rivals.

Thankfully, IaaS solutions are maintained and managed by the provider, which means there is no need for hiring more staff or having to keep everything running on premises.

Capacity

Even if you have the ability to manage an IT infrastructure that is capable of meeting your business’ needs on a day-to-day basis, there are still other ways in which IaaS can help you reduce your expenditure by a significant margin.

You may find, for example, that your current in-house set-up is perfectly adequate for dealing with average workloads, but may become over encumbered as a result of a sudden spike of activity.

In this instance you either need to spend more money on procuring additional hardware, which will be surplus to requirements for the majority of the time, or live with the current restrictions.

Both solutions will end up costing you money due to the lack of flexibility. But with IaaS, such concerns are thrown out the window, because the scalable nature of the cloud makes it easy for you to get extra capacity on tap.

Hopefully it is now obvious that IaaS offers cost-saving benefits that are noteworthy enough to capture the attention of any business owner.

This article is supplied by Jamie Garner, an employee of Daisy Group, who have recently launched their new IaaS product – CloudSelect IaaS.