Comparative Analysis of Cloud Service Models for Professional Use: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

Abstract

This study aims to conduct a structured comparative analysis of cloud computing service models-Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS)-for professional use across multiple sectors. A quantitative comparative approach was employed using data collected from scientific literature and semi-structured interviews involving 15 professionals from education, business, and technology sectors. Each model was evaluated based on five parameters: flexibility, scalability, cost efficiency, user control, and sector relevance using a Likert scale (1–5). The results indicate that IaaS achieved the highest score in flexibility (5.0) and user control (5.0), PaaS showed balanced performance across development-related parameters (average score 4.2), while SaaS demonstrated the highest cost efficiency (5.0). These findings highlight that no single model is universally superior, and selection should be aligned with organizational priorities. This study contributes by providing a parameter-based quantitative comparison framework to support decision-making in cloud service adoption.