A: The IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS models are one way to group and view SharePoint offerings in the cloud. However, there is another dimension that you need to consider. This dimension is the type of cloud to be deployed. Each category has its own benefits and disadvantages, which should be carefully reviewed prior to making any architectural commitments.
There are four general cloud deployment models that can be considered for SharePoint:
In a public cloud deployment, 100 percent of your SharePoint resources are hosted externally to your firm. This enables your organization to take advantage of increased reliability, stability, variable load, and disposable computing. SharePoint public cloud computing is available in SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS flavors, although only SaaS and IaaS offer the ability to host 100 percent of your resource pool. In terms of...