What is PaaS, SaaS and IaaS?

This month's technical term breakdown is on the difference between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.

SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS represent the three different ways to describe how companies can use the cloud for their business.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

The most popular "as-a-service", SaaS products are apps hosted on the cloud. SaaS companies create products for both the end consumer (you and me), and businesses.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

PaaS products provide tools that allow businesses and developers to host, build, and deploy apps. PaaS is not a service that you and I would pay for, but SaaS companies would use them to easily create SaaS apps that we consume.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

IaaS products are created for businesses/orgs to manage their infrastructure resources — such as their network, servers, and data storage — on the cloud. This is super low-level tech stuff that we as consumers don't see, but are completely necessary for building all the software we enjoy on a daily basis.

Positive feedback is feedback too!

We often think of feedback as “critical feedback”, but positive feedback is just as important! Team cohesive and effective teamwork ultimately comes from a place of positivity and a sense of forward/upward momentum. It’s difficult to have these when just focusing on critical feedback. You want to know what you’re doing right along with ways you can improve. So as much as possible, ask for positive feedback like “What did you like about [x] that you’d like to see me continue doing?” and “What was your favorite part about [x]?”

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