In an IaaS solution, the CSP provides access to necessary servers,
networks, virtualization, operating systems, data storage, and data
management. When paying for access to cloud-based infrastructure,
customers enjoy increased flexibility and more comprehensive cloud
solutions. However, the customers are responsible for managing
applications, data, runtime, and middleware, and for taking care of any
necessary updates and responding to unexpected software issues.
IaaS is essentially a self-service model; users can defer the
expenses of purchasing and maintaining hardware, while providing their
own software to run on it.