Which cloud service model provides infrastructure resources on demand without managing underlying hardware?

Which cloud service model provides infrastructure resources on demand without managing underlying hardware?

• A. Platform as a Service
• B. Software as a Service
• C. Infrastructure as a Service
• D. Desktop as a Service

Answer: (C)

Understanding cloud service models and who manages what in the stack is the key idea. The best fit describes providing compute power, storage, and networking on demand while the provider handles the physical hardware and underlying virtualization. You don’t deal with the physical servers or data centers; you control and manage the operating system, runtime, middleware, and applications running on that infrastructure. This division of responsibility—hardware and virtualization managed by the provider, software stack managed by you—defines Infrastructure as a Service. Other models bundle or remove more of the software layers (Platform as a Service and Software as a Service) or focus on virtual desktops (Desktop as a Service).