Cloud Service Models the NIST Way, plus FaaS in Today’s Stack

Lecture 3 on cloud computing models

Cloud computing sounds like one thing, yet it is a spectrum of models that shift who controls what and how much work you, the customer, must do. NIST’s reference model remains the cleanest starting point. It defines 5 essential characteristics, 3 service models, and 4 deployment models, and it reminds us that clouds are network dependent, elastic, pooled, and metered. The service models are SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, and in practice many teams also adopt FaaS as a fourth, modern pattern.

What the NIST model actually says

NIST’s definition states that cloud is on-demand, broadly accessible, pooled, rapidly elastic, and measured. Those traits apply across public, private, community, and hybrid deployments. In the same definition NIST sets out the 3 service models. SaaS lets you use the provider’s application. PaaS lets you deploy your code to a managed platform. IaaS gives you virtualized compute, storage, and networks where you run arbitrary software, including operating systems.