Platform services

Platform services (PaaS) is a special cloud computing model that allows a third-party vendor to provide hardware and software to users over the Internet. Platform services tools are often used in the development of both mobile and cross-platform applications, as well as in DevOps tools..

PaaS allows to free developers from additional installation of their own hardware and software to launch or develop a new application – hardware and software are hosted by the provider in its own infrastructure.

Platform services: pros and cons

Talking about the advantages of PaaS, usually highlight:

• simplification of the development process of multiplatform applications;
• reducing operational burden;
• expanded development capabilities without requiring additional human resources;
• increased efficiency of application management;
• expanded functionality for remote teamwork;
• expanded functionality for remote teamwork.

PaaS services are available, which, despite the pros, can also be a downside: when a provider experiences infrastructure failures, it negatively impacts customers and causes costly performance degradation.

Another issue can also be internal changes to the PaaS product (e.g., when a provider stops supporting a particular programming language). To understand how a PaaS provider’s plan will affect the environment and user experience, they should follow its roadmap.

PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS: what are the differences

Besides PaaS, there are two other major categories of cloud computing services. Thus, it is important to consider IaaS – infrastructure as a service, and SaaS – software as a service, versus PaaS.

Like IaaS, PaaS includes:

• infrastructure (networks, storage, and servers);
• development tools;
• middleware;
• business process analytics;

PaaS allows vendors to expand their offerings in the application stack, which is not possible with IaaS. This happens by adding operating systems as well as middleware (database) and other runtime environments to the cloud environment.

The key difference with SaaS is that SaaS offers an out-of-the-box workload, while PaaS, in turn, offers only the tools necessary for the business to create and manage the workload..