Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a service model where an organization outsources the equipment used to support storage, hardware, servers and networking components. In other words, IaaS offers access to computer resource in a virtualised environment, known as the Cloud, across a public connection. With IaaS individuals can rent cloud infrastructure, server storage and networking on demand.

IaaS is one of the three fundamental service models of cloud computing. The other service models are Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). We examined the finest open source PaaS software in the following article: PaaS Software.

A typical IaaS offers scalability which is particulary useful for workloads that are highly volatile. IaaS also offers utility style costing, location independence, no single point of failure, and physical security of data centre locations. The advantages are so great, IaaS is the fastest growing area of cloud computing.

With commercial cloud systems, there is no investment in hardware required. This enables start-up businesses to easily test out a new business idea. Whilst commercial cloud services are popular, they charge for CPU usage by the hour, storage, and bandwidth consumed. In a large organization, where many users need to be served, it may be cheaper to purchase hardware to create a private cloud. This article showcases the finest open source projects that provide a key alternative for those who wish to avoid using a commercially provided cloud.

Now, let’s explore the 8 open source IaaS software at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Software OpenStack Delivers a massively scalable cloud operating system OpenNebula Cloud computing toolkit Eucalyptus Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs to Useful Systems Nimbus Enables resource owners to provide their resources as an infrastructure cloud CloudStack Turnkey solution that includes the entire "stack" of features OpenQRM Automated, rapid-deployment, storage-manage, virtualization and cloud computing oVirt Virtualization platform with an easy-to-use web interface CloudForms Open hybrid Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud-management

Return to our complete collection of recommended free and open source software including our latest additions.

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