Understanding Types of Cloud Computing Services

By Microsoft MVP and MCT · Pluralsight Author

Published October 24, 2023 · Updated January 15, 2026 · Azure, Microsoft 365

There’s A LOT to know about the different types of cloud computing – IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS! Not only is this vital information, but if you’re planning on getting AZ-900 certified, it’s even more imperative you know this!

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Video Summary

Here are the key points from the video:

  • Introduction to cloud computing services, focusing on IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.
  • Differences in management responsibilities between these services.
  • Pizza analogy to explain the concepts: making pizza at home (on-premises), buying frozen pizza (IaaS), pizza delivery (PaaS), and dining out (SaaS).
  • Examples of popular cloud service providers for each category.
  • Scenarios where each service type is beneficial, like test and development for IaaS, analytics for PaaS, and easy access to applications for SaaS.

For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!

Video Transcript

Introduction to Microsoft Azure Cloud Concepts course. In this module, we will learn about the different types of cloud computing services. We will first start by doing an introduction and learning the difference between cloud computing services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Next, we will take a look at different scenarios where each type of cloud computing service is the best fit. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to compare and contrast the main three different service types you will find in a cloud environment. Let’s start by introducing the types of cloud computing services.

There are multiple types of cloud computing services, but the three main ones are Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Let’s take a look at what the differences are. What really differs between those cloud computing services is how much you manage versus how much the cloud vendor manages. Let’s start with on-premises, which is really easy: you’re the one that manages everything from storage to the data center to networking, virtualization, and applications on top of it. Infrastructure as a Service delivers cloud computing infrastructure to organizations, including things such as servers, networks, and storage. You, as the client, still manage the operating system, the applications, as well as the data. Platform as a Service is mainly used for applications and provides a framework for developers that they can build upon and use to create customized applications. All servers, storage, and networking are managed by the third-party provider, while the developers can maintain management of the applications. Our last option is Software as a Service, in which you simply enjoy the service, pay a fee, but you don’t manage anything at all. Everything is managed by the vendor. A majority of Software as a Service applications are run directly through the web browser and do not require any downloads or installation on the client side.

While this may seem a bit complicated to grasp at first, let’s take a look at the same model but from a different perspective. Let’s compare our cloud computing services to everyone’s favorite food: pizza. Our on-premises model would be similar to making pizza at home from scratch. You make your own dough, you cut your own toppings, you put it in your own oven, and you eat it at your own table. Our Infrastructure as a Service model is similar to getting frozen pizza from the supermarket and cooking it at home. You pay for part of the service—the pizza dough, tomato sauce, toppings, cheese—but you still cook it yourself and eat it at your own table. The Platform as a Service is similar to pizza delivery, where the pizza comes to you already made and hot. You simply need to put it on plates and eat it at your own table. Finally, the Software as a Service is like dining out. You don’t have to bring or make anything except your wallet, but everything is taken care of by the vendor. You simply pay the bill for what you consume. Hopefully, this comparison with pizza allows you to better view the differences between the cloud computing service models.

Let’s take a look at some examples of cloud vendors and services in each category. For Infrastructure as a Service, some of the big players are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Compute Engine. In the Platform as a Service, some big players are Heroku, Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, as well as Azure Logic Apps. In the Software as a Service, we’re looking at Office 365 by Microsoft, Google G Suite, Salesforce, and Dropbox. Of course, those are just a few of the most popular ones, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of cloud providers, with Software as a Service being probably the most popular one.

If we dive deeper and focus only on Microsoft, in Infrastructure as a Service, we have Azure Compute, which is the name for the virtual machines, and Azure Storage. In Platform as a Service, we have things such as Azure Logic Apps, Azure Functions, Azure Web Jobs, and Azure Automation. In the Software as a Service, we have services such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams, and the Power Platform. Those are just a few examples; Microsoft has over a dozen services in each one of those categories.

Now that we have seen the basics, let’s take a look at some scenarios for each cloud computing type. Let’s start with Infrastructure as a Service. Infrastructure as a Service is, first of all, perfect for test and development scenarios, as it allows you to turn on and off development machines only when needed, and you don’t need to pay for the hardware full-time. Storage and backups are also a great scenario for Infrastructure as a Service, as the pricing to keep backups in cold storage is very advantageous. High-performance computing and big data analysis, which are often things you only need for small periods of time but require very powerful computers, can be a great way to use Infrastructure as a Service, as you only pay for the time you need.

Now let’s talk about Platform as a Service. A great scenario is analytics or business intelligence. Tools provided as a service with Platform as a Service allow organizations to analyze and mine their data, finding insights and patterns, and predicting outcomes to improve forecasting, product design decisions, investment returns, and other business decisions. Platform as a Service is also great for developers. Platform as a Service lets developers create applications using built-in software components, and cloud features such as scalability and high availability are included, reducing the amount of coding that developers must do.

Finally, for Software as a Service, the main scenarios are getting access to sophisticated applications without the need to manage any of the infrastructure yourself. From a Microsoft perspective, think of the work required to install SharePoint, Exchange, and Skype for Business servers on-premises versus just using the same tool in the cloud in a matter of minutes. Software as a Service is also basically instant, where if you want to add more users, you just enable their license and they can use the service.

Before finishing up this module, let’s review what we have learned. In this module, we have learned the different types of cloud computing services, such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service, as well as how to differentiate between those three. We have also looked at different scenarios for each type of cloud computing service. This is it for this module. In the next module, we will learn about the different types of cloud computing deployment models. Thank you very much for listening, and I hope you found it informative.