In which cloud service model is the customer responsible for maintaining the operating system?

The correct answer is related to the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. In IaaS, customers are provided with the fundamental building blocks of computing—such as virtual machines, storage, and networks—which they can use to deploy and manage their applications.

One of the key responsibilities assigned to the customer in this model is the maintenance and management of the operating system. This includes installing, updating, and patching the OS, as well as configuring it according to their specific security and performance needs. Since IaaS offers more control and customization options, customers have the flexibility to choose the operating system that best fits their applications and can configure it as they see fit.

In contrast, other cloud service models operate differently. In Software as a Service (SaaS), the provider manages everything, including applications and the underlying OS, leaving zero responsibility for OS maintenance to the customer. Platform as a Service (PaaS) allows customers to build and deploy applications without managing the underlying hardware or operating system—these are handled by the provider. Container as a Service (CaaS) facilitates the deployment and management of containerized applications but also abstracts away much of the underlying OS management from the user.

Thus, the key characteristic of I