Independent software vendors (ISV) utilize cloud infrastructure for different reasons. We hypothesize that the motivation to adopt cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) changes as the ISV’s product is getting adopted by the market. In this paper we consider how the infrastructure needs of ISVs change along the stages of ISV product’s adoption lifecycle, and analyze the potential benefits of utilizing IaaS in different stages. The analysis is illustrated with the cases of ISV firms with documented use of IaaS. These cases support the hypothesis that different benefits of IaaS are gaining importance along the adoption lifecycle.