Cloud Computing Stack 101 (II): PaaS

Even most non-techy people probably have an idea of what cloud computing is by now, but when you start getting into SaaS, PaaS, Iaas – even those of us in the industry can struggle.

In a nutshell, Platform as a Service (PaaS)  is an abstracted and integrated cloud-based computing environment that supports the development, running, and management of applications. What exactly is it? Read along and learn it all!

Well, there does seem to be some confusion around PaaS. It’s a bit like middleware, both in what it does and in that people had trouble understanding (middleware) 10-15 years ago.

For us, PaaS is a set of services aimed at developers that help them develop and test apps without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.

Developers do not want to have to worry about provisioning the servers, storage, and backup associated with developing and launching an app. They want to write code, test the app, launch the app, and be able to make changes to it to fix bugs continually.

All the back-end stuff about setting up servers should be done automatically and transparently in the background, and that is the promise of PaaS.

Middleware is a software layer that offers sophisticated features to developers – transactions, security, clustering, etc. – so they can focus on building their custom applications instead of solving those hard problems repeatedly.

But middleware is only “static” software in the sense that you still have to configure it, deploy it on servers, manage and monitor it, which was typically left to IT teams to do.

PaaS is a superset of middleware and offers all these good middleware services to developers, in addition to covering the operational aspects that were typically owned by IT teams.

As suggested by the name, the platform as a service is more than just an out-of-the-box development tool. As part of their ongoing subscription fee, businesses will also receive additional support from their PaaS provider.

For example, the PaaS vendor is charged with maintaining and securing all of the software development tools at the customer’s disposal. If a business was to start its own software development project from scratch, they might need to purchase new hardware and software and set up security protocols like access management. With PaaS, businesses can simply log-in through an online portal and focus on application development.

Another important feature of PaaS is the way in which the cloud services are constantly updated. It can prove extremely costly and time-consuming to overhaul in-house IT systems, but with PaaS, upgrades occur on a regular basis. It should also be straightforward for developers to request changes to their PaaS offering – for example, if they wish to develop for a different operating system.

Collaboration is also a major aspect of PaaS. Vendors can help developers across all points of the development cycle from the idea stage to deployment.

The platform as a service market is estimated to be worth $2.8 billion and is expected to reach a value of $68.3 billion by 2026. The growth of this industry is connected to the development of cloud computing generally, and infrastructure as a service in particular. The majority of business that deploys PaaS is also implementing IaaS.

One of the major benefits of PaaS is that it opens up the software development process to include experts and non-experts alike.

Because the features of a PaaS solution can be as complex or simple as required, many platforms as a service tools allow anyone to develop software. The use of point-and-click frameworks means that technical know-how is no longer a barrier to turning a great idea into a great application.

For businesses looking to embrace the platform as a service, it is important to remember that it will not solve all of your development issues.

Organizations are still tasked with the creation, testing, and deployment of their applications. Even with the support of your vendor, there remains plenty of work to be done in-house in order to create software that meets your business objectives.

That being said, PaaS, when deployed correctly, can be a great way of streamlining the development process and allows businesses to access powerful tools that may have otherwise been out of reach.