Cloud

What SMBs Need to Know About Infrastructure as a Service

IaaS is allowing small businesses to scale their IT resources without the hassle of maintaining physical hardware.

J.P. Pressley is a contributing writer to BizTech magazine and an editor at Manifest.

There aren’t a lot of tools that allow small businesses to level the playing field that they share with larger companies, but Infrastructure as a Service is one of them. This cloud computing model provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, allowing users to rent servers, storage and networking capabilities without maintaining physical hardware. The service is also helping small to medium-sized businesses automate and accelerate their workflows. Here’s what IT leaders need to know about IaaS.

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What Is IaaS?

IaaS is a model for infrastructure management that provides on-demand access to computing resources (servers, storage, networking, etc.) delivered in the cloud. Powered through one or multiple third parties, it allows SMBs to outsource their IT infrastructure.

Deployments share three common characteristics: service-based resources, straightforward scalability and usage-dependent costs. Companies can also scale their usage up or down as needed.

Unlike traditional data centers, which are more expensive and rigid in structure, IaaS offers greater flexibility and a cost-optimized payment plan. IT leaders can also choose to automate their data backups, system updates, security checks and network management scans so they run routinely in the background.

DIVE DEEPER: Infrastructure as a Service helps manage organizations' IT infrastructure.

IaaS Promotes Infrastructure Modernization

Modern tools call for a modernized infrastructure. But for small businesses with tight budgets and a lack of skilled staff, this is a tough goal to accomplish. IaaS, however, makes modernization feasible because teams can acquire tech resources directly in support of initiatives over time. So, whether your team is looking to do a cloud migration, embark on a Big Data analysis or set up virtual desktops, it’s possible to do on budget.

IaaS also help IT teams with backup and disaster recovery by replicating data across multiple locations. This ensures that in the event of a hardware failure, data remains secure. And if a team is looking to speed up the release cycle of a new product, IaaS can quickly test the environment.

IaaS Integrates with AI, IoT and Emerging Tech

Eighty-five percent of small businesses expect to increase their use of technology over the next few years, with 71 percent planning to use at least one form of emerging technology, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. With IaaS in place, small businesses are one step closer to modernizing their infrastructure and creating seamless interoperability with artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, quantum computing and more.

A tech partner like CDW can help SMB teams identify the right infrastructure solutions to align with their needs and future goals.

UP NEXT: Modernizing your infrastructure will propel your business forward.

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