Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud technology that enables an enterprise to deploy its remote workers a virtual network comprised of essential features. IaaS can include a suite of company applications, storage, and access to internal networks, for example.
IaaS offerings are typically a limited selection of resources compared to those of an enterprise’s home office infrastructure, and they rely on the hardware of the end user to access them. IaaS is presented to the end user as a virtual machine (VM) which they access on their own device or an extra company-owned device. This way of managing and enabling one’s workforce can cut down on hardware expenses providing the degree of access and capability workers have is sufficient for the work being involved.
DigitalOcean, Linode and Rackspace are IaaS products, as are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.
Example:
"Our office just deployed this new system, infrastructure-as-a-service, or IaaS. Basically they have virtualized all of our necessary apps so whether you're working onsite or from home, you can use any available device. Just log in, and it's like you're at an office workstation for all intents and purposes."
