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Blog

# Engineering

Architecture decisions, performance, and how we build ZCP.

Engineering

May 16, 2026

### [What is Metal-as-a-Service (MaaS)?](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/blog/what-is-maas-metal-as-a-service)

Metal-as-a-Service turns a rack of physical servers into an API-driven pool. Here is when bare-metal provisioning matters and how ZCP delivers it.

Engineering

May 16, 2026

### [What is Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)?](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/blog/what-is-paas-platform-as-a-service)

PaaS abstracts the runtime so you ship code, not servers. Here is the NIST definition, the trade-offs, and how ZCP delivers managed Kubernetes and Observability.

Engineering

May 16, 2026

### [What is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)?](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/blog/what-is-saas-software-as-a-service)

A technical decision-maker guide to the SaaS layer: NIST SP 800-145, the CAPEX-to-OPEX shift, and how SaaS providers run on IaaS underneath.

Engineering

May 16, 2026

### [What is software-defined networking (SDN)?](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/blog/what-is-software-defined-networking)

SDN separates the control plane from the data plane. A technical primer on the ONF definition, OpenFlow, and why cloud networking is impossible without it.

Engineering

May 16, 2026

### [What is sovereign cloud?](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/blog/what-is-sovereign-cloud)

Sovereign cloud explained as a category, not a feature. Data residency, operational sovereignty, and corporate sovereignty, and why procurement now asks.

Engineering

May 14, 2026

### [How We Built ZCP: Proxmox, Ceph, and CloudStack](https://zcp.zsoftly.ca/blog/our-infrastructure-stack)

A look inside ZCP's infrastructure stack. Why we chose open-source components, how they fit together, and what it means for reliability and performance.