Published: September 11, 2026
Last Updated: September 11, 2026
Cloud computing gets sorted into two separate categories, and most guides blur them together. One category is deployment models — where the infrastructure physically lives and who can access it. The other is service models — how much of the technology stack you manage yourself versus what the provider handles. Confusing the two is why so many explanations of “types of cloud computing” end up circular.
Brief Answer: Cloud computing is divided on the basis of deployment models (Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud) and service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
Definition: “The manner in which cloud computing is divided into the deployment models, where the infrastructure is located; and the service models, which is how much of the stack the provider actually manages”.
What Are the Different Types of Cloud Computing?
There are only three ways of deploying those services: public, private or hybrid cloud. And multicloud as a related approach, but not as a fourth way of deploying services. According to the 2026 State of Cloud report from Flexera, eighty percent of organizations are running multiple public clouds while only 14 percent run in a multicloud without a private cloud. That second number, it’s really the one that explains things better, not the headline stat. Turns out most companies running multiple clouds are actually hybrid, they’ve just got a multicloud layer stacked on top of that.
- Public cloud, that’s infrastructure a third-party provider owns and runs (think AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), and every customer shares it.
- Private cloud is different, the infrastructure is there for just one organization, usually sitting on-premises or on hardware that’s single-tenant.
- And hybrid cloud, that’s when you combine at least one private environment with one or more public clouds.
- Community cloud: a shared infrastructure for groups of organizations with common regulatory or mission requirements, ex. Government agencies
What Is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?
IaaS provides the fundamental pieces of computer hardware that you then run your systems on top of. As outlined by Google Cloud’s official documentation, IaaS delivers infrastructure resources on-demand such as compute, storage, networking, and virtualization, with the provider having ownership and responsibility for the infrastructure while the customer manages the OS, middleware, data and applications.
That split matters practically:
- You’re in charge of: operating systems, runtime, middleware, applications and data
- The provider, well they handle physical servers, they handle virtualization, plus storage hardware and networking on top of that.
- As for examples, you’ve got Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.
IaaS is the way to go for a team that desires full control of their environment. For example, one could say that a DevOps team desiring custom VMs for a certain compliance need should lean towards IaaS over a fully managed platform.
What Is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?
PaaS is basically an environment that’s already built for you, for developing and deploying applications. So mostly what you end up writing is the application code, that’s really it. Everything else, well the operating system, the runtime, the infrastructure, someone else is handling all that already. Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure App Service and Heroku are examples of PaaS platforms.
- You’re responsible for the application code, plus your data, and whatever configuration comes with it.
- As for the provider, that covers the underlying infrastructure, it covers the operating system too, and the runtime environment on top of that.
- Development teams who want to ship and iterate fast, without provisioning a server with each deploy, that’s who this fits best.
A small engineering team developing a customer-facing web application on a very tight release schedule, will probably benefit from a PaaS platform more than IaaS, as the deployment pipeline is already built-in.
What Is Software as a Service (SaaS)?
SaaS is the most common model that everyone is already using daily without realizing it, the provider takes care of the entire stack, you just log in and get to work. Examples of SaaS are Salesforce, Dropbox and Microsoft 365: the provider takes care of infrastructure, platform, patching updates and security, the customer just takes care of how the account is configured and used.
- You handle: user accounts, permissions, and configuration options
- Provider covers: infrastructure, platform, application code, updates and maintenance
- Best fit: companies that want working software right away, immediately, without any cost of installation (for eg., email, CRM or collaboration tools) and whose customization requirements are low.
IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS: Which Model Is Right for You?
The proper model is a matter of how much control you want versus the time involved in setting up. Here’s the comparison in one location.
| Model |
What you manage |
What the provider manages |
Best fit |
| IaaS |
Applications, data, runtime, middleware, and operating system |
Servers, storage, virtualization, and networking |
Teams needing full infrastructure control, such as custom VM configurations on AWS EC2 or Google Compute Engine |
| PaaS |
Application code and data only |
Infrastructure, operating system, and runtime environment |
Development teams shipping custom applications quickly, such as on Google App Engine |
| SaaS |
User accounts and configuration only |
The entire stack, including infrastructure and the application itself |
Businesses needing ready-to-use software with no setup, such as Salesforce or Dropbox |
Methodology note: this table reflects the management-responsibility breakdown documented directly in Google Cloud’s and Red Hat’s IaaS/PaaS/SaaS pages, cross-checked against AWS’s own service-model documentation for consistency, rather than a subjective scoring system.
For how businesses actually deploy these three models in production environments, see how businesses are actually deploying these models.
Multicloud vs Hybrid Cloud: Are They the Same Thing?
No, multicloud and hybrid cloud are different choices of architecture, even if they are mostly used interchangeably in definitions and descriptions. Hybrid cloud is defined as using at least one private environment and one or more public clouds. Multicloud is using more than one public cloud provider, whether or not a private environment is present.
The blend occurs when the hybrid configuration also covers more than one public vendor, then it’s truly both. But a company that is operating two public clouds with nothing private in between is multicloud and not hybrid, a company with a single private data center plus a single public cloud is a hybrid and not multicloud. This is why this operational point makes the 2026 Flexera data so interesting: large companies (10,000+ employees) were 78% more likely to be operating hybrid estates than smaller companies, because (largely) regulatory requirements placed various data types in a dedicated environment which could still be accessed and operate alongside the public-cloud workloads.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is serverless computing its own type of cloud service, or part of PaaS?
Serverless computing (also known as Function as a Service (FaaS)), Google Cloud calls it a dedicated service, though AWS and Azure treat it as a subset of PaaS. Simply put, infrastructure just goes away, you write functions that execute when invoked, then the cloud provider takes care of everything else.
2. Can you switch cloud deployment models after you’ve already committed to one?
Yes, and this is generally the case. Moving from one public cloud to hybrid or multicloud is the most common step as compliance needs grow or simply to mitigate vendor lock-in problems, despite the fact that the migration must have a clear plan around data portability and re-architecture for the new environment.
3. Which type of cloud is cheapest for a small business?
Public cloud SaaS and PaaS options generally cost less upfront for small businesses because there’s no infrastructure to purchase or maintain — you pay a subscription or usage-based fee instead. Private cloud tends to only become cost-competitive at a scale where consistent, predictable workloads offset the upfront hardware investment.
