The future of enterprise IT is x-as-a-service. Especially infrastructure-as-a-services enable quick access to computing and storage resources and are becoming more and more popular. However, what many IaaS do lack is the convenience, the comfortable configuration of the infrastructure. With infrastructure-as-a-platform (IaaP) especially small-and medium-sized businesses that do not have the necessary IT expertise get easy access to build up their virtual data center out of standard IaaS resources.

Infrastructure-as-a-Platform – Simplicity counts

What most IaaS solutions do lack is the easy access to resources that can be used to build virtual infrastructures. These are usually cloud services providers of the first generation. The offer is accessed through an API, in order to control the virtual machines and let interact all infrastructure components and services together. Graphical management / configuration interfaces are available but only with very small features. Instances can be started, stopped and shutted down, but for the configuration of complex infrastructures expertise and extensive know-how with parallel programming is necessary.

And that is the crucial factor. The ordinary user is not an cloud cloud computing expert nor must or should he be someone. He does not understand the issues that make a cloud to a cloud. And this is not necessary for him, he just wants to use the “black box” for his own purposes. Moreover, he is not interested or even have the time to deal with the often complex systems and processes, and to learn it. Usually the average cloud user expects a coherent and integrated platform on which he can assemble his necessary IT resources over a certain period of time for his own purposes.

The future belongs to infrastructure-as-a-platform

Besides the ease of access to the resources, in particular infrastructure-as-a-platform solutions combine various IaaS resources such as computing power, storage, network components, etc. with “some clicks” and allow companies in order to build their own data center on demand, so a “data-center-as-a-service “(DCaaS).

Already established cloud computing provider – the first generation – must begin to catch up in this area and offer their existing and new customers more convenience, so that they can use the infrastructure more conveniently and also require less time and expertise at configuration. Because IT departments, especially of small-and medium-sized companies will be watching for more comfort in the future.