Below are the 3 cloud supporting services cloud providers provide to customer:
+ SaaS (Software as a Service): SaaS uses the web to deliver applications that are managed by a third- party vendor and whose interface is accessed on the clients' side. Most SaaS applications can be run directly from a web browser without any downloads or installations required, although some require plugins.
+ PaaS (Platform as a Service): are used for applications, and other development, while providing cloud components to software. What developers gain with PaaS is a framework they can build upon to develop or customize applications. PaaS makes the development, testing, and deployment of applications quick, simple, and cost-effective. With this technology, enterprise operations, or a third-party provider, can manage OSes, virtualization, servers, storage, networking, and the PaaS software itself. Developers, however, manage the applications.
+ IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): self-service models for accessing, monitoring, and managing remote datacenter infrastructures, such as compute (virtualized or bare metal), storage, networking, and networking services (e.g. firewalls). Instead of having to purchase hardware outright, users can purchase IaaS based on consumption, similar to electricity or other utility billing.
In general, IaaS provides hardware so that an organization can install their own operating system.