Tutorial: Understanding IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

1. Introduction

This tutorial aims to provide an in-depth understanding of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), a crucial model of cloud computing. By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a sound grasp of what IaaS is, how it works, and how it can benefit your web development projects.

You'll also get hands-on experience with a few practical examples to solidify your understanding.

Prerequisites: Basic understanding of cloud computing is encouraged but not mandatory.

2. Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding IaaS

IaaS is a cloud-based service which provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. It's an instant computing infrastructure, provisioned and managed over the internet.

How IaaS Works

IaaS works on a principle known as virtualization. It involves creating multiple virtual machines on a single physical server. Each of these virtual machines can run its own operating system and applications, just like a physical computer.

Benefits of IaaS

1. Scalability: IaaS allows you to scale up and down quickly in response to an enterprise’s requirements.
2. Cost-saving: With IaaS, you only pay for what you use. This can be a cost-effective route for many enterprises.

3. Code Examples

Since IaaS is a concept of cloud computing and not a specific coding language, we won't have traditional "code examples". However, we can demonstrate using a popular IaaS provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Example 1: Setting up an EC2 instance on AWS

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
2. From the console dashboard, choose "Launch Instance".
3. In the "Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)" page, choose an AMI.
4. In the "Choose an Instance Type" page, choose your desired type and then choose "Review and Launch".
5. Review your instance launch details then choose "Launch".
6. When prompted for a key pair, choose "Choose an existing key pair", then choose the key pair that you created when getting set up.
7. After the instance is launched, its status changes to running.

Example 2: Creating an S3 bucket on AWS

1. Open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.
2. Choose "Create bucket".
3. In the "Create a bucket" dialog box, in the "Bucket name" section, enter a unique DNS-compliant name for your new bucket.
4. In the "Region" section, choose the AWS Region where you want the bucket to reside.
5. Choose "Create".

4. Summary

We've covered the basics of IaaS, how it works, and its benefits. We've also explored how to use AWS, a popular IaaS provider, to create an EC2 instance and an S3 bucket.

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Create a new EC2 instance with Linux as the operating system. Set the instance type as t2.micro

Exercise 2: Create a new S3 bucket and upload a text file to it.

Exercise 3: Set up a basic server on your EC2 instance and serve a static website.

All these exercises are practical applications of IaaS and will help you get hands-on experience with AWS, an IaaS provider.

Additional Resources

1. What is IaaS?
2. Introduction to AWS
3. IaaS in Cloud Computing