What type of service allows clients to deploy their own applications on a provided infrastructure?

The concept you are focusing on is Platform as a Service (PaaS), which provides a cloud computing environment where developers can build, deploy, and manage applications without dealing with the complexities of the underlying infrastructure. PaaS offers a pre-configured platform that typically includes operating systems, programming languages, and various tools and services necessary for application development. This flexibility allows clients to focus on developing their applications while leveraging the scalability and reliability of cloud infrastructure managed by the service provider.

In contrast, Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers software applications over the internet, which users access through a web browser without any control over the underlying infrastructure or platform. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offers virtualized computing resources over the internet but requires clients to manage and maintain their applications and operating systems. Network as a Service (NaaS) focuses on providing network services over the cloud but does not cater specifically to application deployment like PaaS does. By enabling clients to deploy their own applications using a provided environment, PaaS encapsulates the key characteristics that distinguish it from the other service models.