A number of cloud delivery models exist for big data. Try talking to those with experience to figure out which type of delivery model is best for your big data initiative.
Infrastructure as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of the most straightforward of the cloud computing services. IaaS is the delivery of computing services including hardware, networking, storage, and data center space based on a rental model. The consumer of the service acquires a resource and is charged for that resource based on amount used and the duration of that usage.
You find both public and private versions of IaaS. In the public IaaS, the user utilizes a credit card to acquire these resources. When the user stops paying, the resource disappears. In a private IaaS service, it is usually the IT organization or an integrator who creates the infrastructure designed to provide resources on demand for internal users and sometimes business partners.
Platform as a Service
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a mechanism for combining IaaS with an abstracted set of middleware services, software development, and deployment tools that allow the organization to have a consistent way to create and deploy applications on a cloud or on premises.
A PaaS offers a consistent set of programming or middleware services that ensure that developers have a well-tested and well-integrated way to create applications in a cloud environment. A PaaS environment brings development and deployment together to create a more manageable way to build, deploy, and scale applications. A PaaS requires an IaaS.
Software as a Service
Software as a Service is a business application created and hosted by a provider in a multitenant model. Multitenancy refers to the situation where a single instance of an application runs in a cloud environment, but serves multiple client organizations, keeping all their data separate. Customers pay per user on a monthly or yearly contract model. The SaaS model sits on top of both the PaaS and the foundational IaaS.
Data as a Service
DaaS is closely related to SaaS. DaaS is a platform-independent service that would let you connect to the cloud to store and retrieve your data. In addition, you find a number of specialized data services that are of great benefit in a big data environment. For example, Google offers a service that can process a query with 5 terabytes of data in only 15 seconds.
This type of query would typically take ten times as long with a typical data center.