What is the responsibility of a cloud provider in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

In the context of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the cloud provider's primary responsibility is to manage the underlying physical infrastructure, which includes computing resources, storage, and the physical network. This layer ensures that the data centers are operational, the hardware is maintained, and resource availability is consistent.

When it comes to IaaS, users are typically responsible for managing the software, applications, and virtual machines that run on this infrastructure. This means that users have to handle software updates, security patching, and user account management.

While the cloud provider plays a key role in securing the physical components of their infrastructure, the dimension of security that includes software management, user account creation, and configurations falls under the responsibilities of the customer. Hence, identifying the cloud provider’s role centers on the management of the physical network rather than aspects that are controlled by the end-user.