Which of the following best describes Infrastructure as a Service $($IaaS$)?$

A$.$ A way to allow applications to be used on a subscription basis rather than through the standard licensing model

B$.$ A means of offloading services from the local intranet to the Internet itself

C$.$ A virtual environment in the cloud in which a client rents access to a virtual infrastructure and to certain preinstalled software components

D$.$ A virtual environment in the cloud, in which a business or individual obtains, or provisions, hardware services as needed