People asked: "what do you mean by "pure" IaaS?" It is a legitimate question, as the bare iron needs an operating system, some utilities, in order to be usable. In reality "pure IaaS" is the absolute minimum PaaS required to set up a server or a cloud infrastructure.<p>How do we define the "minimum" PaaS? Some IaaS providers take themselves the decision -take it or leave it - on behalf of the customers. Very few IaaS providers, like CloudSigma, are offering customers the freedom to choose what they need, what it works for them, what they like.
Worth mentioning, another strategy for customers is to use an abstraction layer. Good ones include jclouds and libcloud. Still take the point about focus/quality.