Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
One of the leading technology trends during the last decade has been cloud computing. The rise of ‘everything-as-a-service’ as a business model has been increasingly adopted by businesses because of the range of benefits the different types of cloud computing bring such as reduced costs, easy accessibility, improved data, cloud security, and unlimited storage capacity are just a few.
What is PaaS?
As a cloud computing model, Platform as a Service (PaaS) involves delivering hardware and software tools to users via the Internet. Such tools are typically used for developing applications. Platform-as-a-Service cloud providers offer providers host the infrastructure and hardware on their own servers. Consequently, PaaS relieves developers of the need to install hardware and software locally to develop or run a new application.
Most PaaS tools are touted as easy to use and convenient. Compared to on-premise alternatives, PaaS is likely to prove more cost-effective for an organization.
How does PaaS work?
PaaS does not replace a company’s entire IT infrastructure for software development. It is provided through a cloud service provider’s hosted infrastructure. Users most frequently access the offerings through a web browser. PaaS can be delivered through public, private, and hybrid clouds to deliver application hosting and Java development services.
Users will normally have to pay for PaaS on a per-use basis, ensuring business continuity and well-managed capital expenditure for businesses. However, some providers charge a flat monthly fee for access to the platform and its applications.
PaaS Characteristics
1. Multi-tenant Characteristics
Multitenancy as a concept is an important feature of cloud computing because it is a single instance of a software application that is provided to multiple tenants.
Benefit – A step easier to add more data i.e. customers
The addition of new customers has always been a major challenge for businesses, as any bad onboarding service can lead to poor prospects and a bad reputation. Therefore, you need to implement the right technique to bring customers on board. Features such as an easy “self-sign-up” process is important in this case.
A multi-tenant application will offer benefits to vendors, as it has an automated signup process. The configured domain and the sub-domain are also automated. The other automated tasks include setting the default data and configuring the application.
2. Customizable OR Programmable User Interface
Experts say PaaS helps users address the biggest complaint of software-as-a-service (SaaS) systems – the fact they can be configured but not customized – by providing the flexibility to create business processes tailored to unique needs.
Benefit – Increased Productivity
Maximizing productivity can mean something different for each business, but custom application development designs will help your business reach it. An application with a high-performing design enables productivity in terms of progress, driving user engagement, and sales conversion.
3. Robust Workflow Engine & Capabilities
PaaS is a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable you to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications.
Benefit – Maintain a sequence of tasks.
A Workflow management system helps maintain a sequence of tasks to streamline workflow in an organization. Workflows handled manually create chaos and confusion, and hence, a robust workflow management tool helps align delegated tasks and removes redundancy, especially in a remote working environment.
Types of PaaS Models
1. Public PaaS
A public cloud is the best place to use this model. Cloud providers manage all the other major components of an application’s deployment, such as OSes, databases, servers, and storage network networks, while the user controls the software deployment.
Developers can configure and control servers and databases with middleware provided by public PaaS vendors without having to build their own infrastructure. As a result, public PaaS and even Infrastructure-as-a-Service models (IaaS) can run together, with PaaS operating on top of a vendor’s IaaS infrastructure while using the public cloud. However, this does mean that the client is tied to a single public cloud option that they might not want to use.
2. Hybrid PaaS
Combining public and private PaaS, hybrid PaaS affords companies the flexibility of infinite capacity provided by a public PaaS with the cost efficiencies and control of owning an internal infrastructure in private PaaS. Hybrid PaaS uses a hybrid cloud.
3. Open PaaS
A free, open-source, business-oriented collaboration platform that is attractive on all devices, Open PaaS provides useful web apps including collaborative messaging systems and integration and workflow technologies.
Open PaaS was designed to enable users to quickly deploy new applications. It has the goal of developing a PaaS technology that is committed to enterprise collaborative applications, specifically those deployed on hybrid clouds.
So why PaaS?
The benefits of cloud computing are endless. Here’s how PaaS can help you.
PaaS works well for small businesses and startup companies for two very basic reasons.
First, it’s cost-effective, allowing smaller organizations access to state-of-the-art resources without the big price tag. Most small firms have never been able to build robust development environments on-premises, so PaaS provides a path for accelerating software development. Second, it allows companies to focus on what they specialize in without worrying about maintaining basic infrastructure.
Other advantages include the following:
- Dynamically Scale: Rapidly add capacity in peak times and scale down as needed
- Custom Solutions: Operational tools in place so developers can create custom software
- Flexibility: Allows employees to log in and work on applications from anywhere
- Time Savings: No need to spend time setting up/maintaining the core stack
- Speed to Market: Speed up the creation of apps
- Disaster Recovery: Ability to recover backed-up data from data centers almost immediately from the vendor.
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