Explainer: How Infrastructure as a Service Works, Using AWS as a Case Study

Cloud computing lets people and organizations rent storage, servers, databases and networking over the internet instead of buying and maintaining their own hardware. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of its main models, offering virtual machines, storage, networking, processing power and virtual firewalls on demand. Providers run the physical data centres, while users keep control over their operating systems, applications and data. The article describes common IaaS features such as virtualization, scalability, on-demand access and pay-as-you-go pricing. It uses Amazon Web Services as a case study to weigh the model's advantages, including lower costs and flexibility, against its drawbacks.