What Does Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Mean?

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the practice of delivering a full compute stack — including servers, storage, networking and operating software — as an abstract, virtualized construct.

Techopedia Explains Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS grew out of the broader conversion from traditional hardware-oriented data centers to virtualized and cloud-based infrastructure. By removing the fixed relationship between hardware and operating software and middleware, organizations found that they could scale data environments quickly and easily to meet workload demands. In this way, the enterprise is able to streamline its actual hardware infrastructure while still providing the needed resources to serve the business model.