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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds are gaining increasing popularity in the IT world. However, there remains no concrete definition and clear technical understanding of IaaS systems. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive taxonomy for describing IaaS architecture. The purpose of our taxonomy is to identify and classify the fundamental IaaS components into ordered categories/layers. The taxonomy is structured around seven layers: core service layer, support layer, value-added services, control layer, management layer, security layer and resource abstraction layer. We survey various IaaS systems and map them onto our taxonomy to evaluate the classification. Using the taxonomy and survey results we identify similarities and differences of IaaS architectural approaches, identify areas requiring further research, and show real-world usability of the proposed taxonomy. 