Understanding Cloud Service Models
There are different types of cloud services, and these are very heavily tested in the Security+ exam; therefore, we will show screenshots of the types of offerings. We will first look at infrastructure as a service, which is the model that you may have more control over.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
If you think of network infrastructure, you think of desktops, servers, firewalls, routers, and switches—the hardware devices for a network. When you purchase these devices, they have a default factory setting and these settings need to be reconfigured. Desktops are bare bones, meaning that they have no operating system installed. IaaS is the same; you need to preconfigure these devices, install an operating system, and maintain the patch management. See the pricing (as of writing this book) for IaaS in the screenshot that follows:
Figure 4.5 – Microsoft's IaaS offering (July 2018)
...
