Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of those terms that sounds more complicated than it actually is. In practical terms, IaaS means renting servers, storage, and networking from a cloud provider instead of buying and maintaining your own hardware. Instead of a server closet in your office, your infrastructure lives in a data center managed by Microsoft (Azure), Amazon (AWS), or Google (Google Cloud).
For small and mid-sized businesses in Central Florida, IaaS can be a game-changer, but it’s not the right fit for everyone. Here’s what you need to know before making the switch.
How IaaS Works in Practice
Think of IaaS like leasing office space instead of buying a building. You get the space (computing resources) you need, the landlord handles the building maintenance (hardware, power, cooling, physical security), and you’re responsible for what happens inside your space (operating systems, applications, data, security configuration).
With IaaS, you spin up virtual machines in minutes instead of waiting weeks for hardware to ship. You scale resources up during busy periods and back down when demand drops. You pay for what you use, typically billed by the hour or month. And if a physical server fails in the data center, the provider automatically migrates your workload to healthy hardware with minimal or no disruption.
IaaS vs. SaaS vs. PaaS: What’s the Difference?
The cloud service models are easier to understand with concrete examples. SaaS (Software as a Service) is the most hands-off: you use an application through your browser. Microsoft 365, QuickBooks Online, and Salesforce are SaaS products. The provider manages everything: infrastructure, platform, and application.
PaaS (Platform as a Service) gives you a platform to build and deploy applications without managing the underlying servers. It’s primarily used by software developers. IaaS gives you the most control: you get virtual servers, storage, and networking, and you manage everything from the operating system up. It’s the closest thing to having your own hardware without actually owning it.
When IaaS Makes Sense for Small Businesses
IaaS is the right choice when you need server resources but don’t want to invest in on-premises hardware. Common scenarios we set up for Central Florida businesses include: hosting line-of-business applications that can’t run as SaaS (older ERP systems, custom databases, industry-specific software), running Windows Server environments in the cloud for Active Directory, file shares, or application hosting, creating disaster recovery replicas of on-premises servers so you can fail over to the cloud during an outage, and setting up development and testing environments without buying additional hardware.
The Costs: What to Expect
IaaS pricing varies widely based on the resources you need. A basic Windows Server virtual machine on Azure with 2 CPUs, 8 GB RAM, and 128 GB storage runs about $150-$200/month. A more powerful server for running database workloads might cost $400-$800/month. Storage costs are separate and depend on the type and amount of data.
The key advantage is predictability and flexibility. You’re not making a $10,000+ capital investment in a server that depreciates over 5 years. Instead, you’re paying a monthly operating expense that you can adjust as your needs change. For businesses with seasonal fluctuations, like tax firms or tourism-related companies here in Central Florida, the ability to scale resources up and down with demand provides real cost savings.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The biggest mistake we see is businesses migrating to IaaS without right-sizing their resources. If you had an overpowered server on-premises, don’t replicate that same configuration in the cloud. Start with what you actually need and scale up if performance requires it. Otherwise you’ll be paying for idle capacity every month.
Another common error is forgetting about egress costs. Most cloud providers charge for data leaving their network. If your cloud servers need to send large amounts of data back to your office or to clients, those transfer fees add up. We factor egress costs into every IaaS proposal to make sure the monthly bill matches expectations.
