The world population has now reached 7 billion people. This milestone inspired us to conduct research to update our statistics, and the changes over the past 5 years are remarkable. In 2006, only 1 person out of 100 would have had a college education– today that number has jumped to 7 thanks in part to advances in higher education in Asia. The detailed research and source information can be found here and the statistics provided by Donella Meadows in 1990 that originally inspired our project can be viewed here. 

100people.org

The world as 100 people

SaaS

“Software as a Service” uses the internet  to deliver applications that are managed by a third-party vendor and whose interface is accessed on the clients’ side. Most SaaS applications can be run directly from a Web browser, without any downloads or installations required.

Example: Microsoft – Hotmail /Outlook.com

PaaS

“Platform as a Service” provides computing infrastructure both  the hardware and the software (“Platforms” that are installed on top of the hardware).  PaaS allows you to create applications using single or multiple software components that are controlled by a third-party vendor. PaaS is highly scalable , and users don’t have to worry about platform upgrades or having their site go down during maintenance.

Examle: Google App Engine and AWS Elastic Beanstalk

IaaS

“Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), delivers computer infrastructure (such as a platform virtualisation environment and virtual machines), storage, and networking. Instead of having to purchase software, servers, or network equipment, users can buy these as a fully outsourced service that is usually billed according to the amount of resources consumed.

Example: VMware – vCloud Director

In summary:

Ultimately is has to  do with what aspects must be managed by users, rather than providers.

SaaS completely managed and hosted by the provider and accessed via internet by the users.

PaaS, vendors still manage runtime, middleware, O/S, virtualization, servers, storage, and networking, but users manage applications and data.

IaaS users are responsible for managing more: applications, data, runtime, middleware, and O/S. Vendors still manage the physical side such as  Physical servers, hard drives, storage, and networking.

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