A county GIS team needs virtual machines, guest OS control, and custom map engines they fully administer. Staff debate whether a turnkey SaaS mapping portal is enough. Which cloud service model fits their requirement?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Think of GIS like needing your own workshop, not just buying finished maps from a kiosk. If the county must own the VMs, patch the OS, and run custom engines, that is IaaS—not a turnkey SaaS portal. SaaS is great when you only consume the app; here they still need the workshop keys.
Full Explanation
Infrastructure as a Service provides virtualized compute, storage, and networking while leaving the customer responsible for the guest operating system, middleware, and applications. A GIS team that requires OS-level control and custom map engines therefore selects IaaS rather than SaaS, which delivers a fully provider-managed application without guest OS access. FaaS fits short event-driven functions, and DaaS addresses virtual desktops, not custom map-engine administration.