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A pharmaceutical company is migrating a legacy on-premises application that processes highly sensitive patient health information (PHI). The application requires strict control over the underlying operating system and application runtime, and must meet stringent regulatory compliance standards. Which Azure compute model offers the most control to satisfy these requirements?
- AInfrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- BFunction as a Service (FaaS)
- CSoftware as a Service (SaaS)
- DPlatform as a Service (PaaS)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS provides the most control over the underlying infrastructure, including the operating system and application runtime. This is crucial for applications with strict regulatory requirements and specific needs for system-level configurations and security patches that might not be available in PaaS or FaaS.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. FaaS (serverless) provides even less control than PaaS, focusing only on code execution without managing the underlying servers or OS.
- C. SaaS is a fully managed application where the vendor controls all infrastructure and application layers, offering no control to the customer over the compute model.
- D. PaaS abstracts away the OS and runtime, offering less control than required for strict regulatory compliance over the underlying infrastructure.
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
A cloud computing service model that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. It gives users the most control over the operating system, middleware, and applications.
- Highest level of customer control in the cloud
- Managed by customer: OS, runtime, data, applications
- Managed by provider: virtualization, servers, storage, networking
- Suitable for legacy apps, custom OS, strict compliance
Memory trick: IaaS gives 'I' control, PaaS is 'P'latform ready, FaaS is 'F'unction focused, SaaS is 'S'oftware done.