PaaS

Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) or platform base service is a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.<ref name="bbutler">Brandon Butler, "PaaS Primer: What is platform as a service and why does it matter?" Network World, February 11, 2013.</ref><ref name="rackspace">"Understanding the Cloud Computing Stack: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS," Rackspace, October 22, 2013.</ref><ref name="wchang">William Y. Chang, Hosame Abu-Amara, Jessica Feng Sanford, Transforming Enterprise Cloud Services, London: Springer, 2010, pp. 55-56.</ref> PaaS can be delivered in three ways:

as a public cloud service from a provider, where the consumer controls software deployment with minimal configuration options, and the provider provides the networks, servers, storage, operating system (OS), middleware (e.g. Java runtime, .NET runtime, integration, etc.), database and other services to host the consumer's application.
as a private service (software or appliance) behind a firewall.
as software deployed on a public infrastructure as a service.<ref name="jhurwitz">Judith Hurwitz, Marcia Kaufman, Fern Halper and Dan Kirsh, "What Is Platform as a Service (PaaS) in Cloud Computing?" Hybrid Cloud For Dummies, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.</ref><ref name="nist">Template:Cite web</ref>

Development and uses

Fotango, a London-based company owned by Canon Europe launched the world's first<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> public platform as a service known as "Zimki". It was developed in 2005 with a beta launch in March 2006 and a public launch at EuroOSCON in 2006.<ref>Zimki, hosted JavaScript environment, http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/09/zimki-hosted-javascript-enviro.html</ref> Zimki was an end-to-end JavaScript web application development and utility computing platform that removed all the repetitive tasks encountered when creating web applications and web services. All aspects of infrastructure and operations from provisioning and setting up virtual servers, scaling, configuration, security and backups were done automatically by Zimki. Zimki introduced the tagline "Pre-Shaved Yaks" <ref>What is a pre-shaved Yak, https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimki/243779431/in/photostream/</ref> to describe the removal of all these repetitive tasks.<ref>Pre Shaved Yaks, http://archive.ianwinter.co.uk/2007/09/25/zimki-is-no-more/</ref>

Zimki was a pure "pay as you go" code execution platform which enabled developers to build and deploy applications or web services without incurring any start-up costs on a true utility based computing platform. Charging was done on storage used, network traffic and JSOPs (Javascript Operations). It provided a multitenant platform where developers could create entire applications (front and back end through SSJS<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) by using a single language - Javascript, with all development, billing, monitoring and application control exposed through APIs<ref>Fotango Opens its APIs, http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/fotango-opens-its-zimki-customer-api-153777895.html</ref> and a range of component services from a No-SQL object store to Message Queue services.<ref>Fotango Opens its Zimki Customer API, http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/fotango-opens-its-zimki-customer-api-153777895.html</ref> Furthermore, all functions within Zimki could be exposed as web services and Zimki provided billing analysis down to individual functions.

Whilst the Zimki platform was rapidly growing and Fotango was profitable, the parent company decided this area was not core<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the service was closed in Dec 2007.<ref>Zimki Shuts Down, http://blog.gerv.net/2007/09/zimki_shuts_down/</ref> At the time of its closure, Zimki had several thousand developer accounts and had demonstrated the technical viability of Platform as a Service but also provided the first example of the perils of being dependent upon a single provider.<ref>Zimki closure shows the perils of hosted web platforms, http://www.itwriting.com/blog/337-zimki-closure-shows-the-perils-of-hosted-web-platforms.html</ref> This risk had been highlighted in July 2007, when the CEO gave a presentation on Zimki at OSCON 2007 which announced that Zimki would no longer be open sourced and discussed the future of what was then called Framework as a Service (later renamed to Platform as a Service) covering the importance of a market of providers based upon an open source reference model. <ref>OSCON Keynote 2007, http://mais.uol.com.br/view/v1xaxe2lamb3/oscon--commoditisation-of-it-and-what-the-future-holds-0402D4B10386?types=A</ref>

In April 2008, Google launched App Engine, with a free trial version limited to 10,000 developers.<ref name="jschofield">Jack Schofield, "Google angles for business users with ‘platform as a service’," The Guardian, April 16, 2008.</ref> This was said to have "turned the Internet cloud computing space into a fully-fledged industry virtually overnight."<ref name="dhinchcliffe">Dion Hinchcliffe, "Comparing Amazon’s and Google’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Offerings," ZDNet, April 11, 2008.</ref>

The original intent of PaaS was to simplify the code-writing process for developers, with the infrastructure and operations handled by the PaaS provider. Originally, all PaaSes were in the public cloud. Because many companies did not want to have everything in the public cloud, private and hybrid PaaS options (managed by internal IT departments) were created.<ref name="mkavis">Mike Kavis, "Top 8 Reasons Why Enterprises Are Passing On PaaS," Forbes, September 15, 2014.</ref>

PaaS provides an environment for developers and companies to create, host and deploy applications, saving developers from the complexities of the infrastructure side (setting up, configuring and managing elements such as servers and databases). PaaS can improve the speed of developing an app, and allow the consumer to focus on the application itself. With PaaS, the consumer manages applications and data, while the provider (in public PaaS) or IT department (in private PaaS) manages runtime, middleware, operating system, virtualization, servers, storage and networking.<ref name="jhurwitz"/><ref>Sean Ludwig, "An ugly duckling no more: Why Platform-as-a-Service is poised for huge growth," VentureBeat, October 8, 2012.</ref> Development tools provided by the vendor are customized according to the needs of the user.<ref>Andrea Peiro, "Keep Your Head in the Cloud," Inc., January 2009.</ref> The user can choose to maintain the software, or have the vendor maintain it.<ref name="jhurwitz"/>

PaaS offerings may also include facilities for application design, application development, testing and deployment, as well as services such as team collaboration, web service integration, and marshalling, database integration, security, scalability, storage, persistence, state management, application versioning, application instrumentation, and developer community facilitation. Besides the service engineering aspects, PaaS offerings include mechanisms for service management, such as monitoring, workflow management, discovery and reservation.<ref>M. Boniface, "Platform-as-a-Service Architecture for Real-Time Quality of Service Management in Clouds," ieee.org, May 2010.</ref><ref>Chen, Tse-Shih, et al. "Platform-as-a-Service Architecture for Parallel Video Analysis in Clouds." Advances in Intelligent Systems and Applications-Volume 2. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013. 619-626.</ref>

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of PaaS are primarily that it allows for higher-level programming with dramatically reduced complexity; the overall development of the application can be more effective, as it has built-in/self up-and-down ramping infrastructure resources; and maintenance and enhancement of the application is thus easier.

Possible perceived disadvantages of various PaaS providers as cited by their users include increased pricing at larger scalesTemplate:Citation needed, lack of operational features,<ref>https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikekavis/2014/09/15/top-8-reasons-why-enterprises-are-passing-on-paas/#2b65b66165aa</ref> reduced control<ref>https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikekavis/2014/09/15/top-8-reasons-why-enterprises-are-passing-on-paas/2/#196203128cd0</ref>, and the vagaries of traffic routing systems<ref>https://genius.com/James-somers-herokus-ugly-secret-annotated</ref>.

Types

Public, private and hybrid (PAAS)

There are several types of PaaS, including public, private and hybrid.<ref name="mkavis"/> PaaS was originally intended for applications on public cloud services, before expanding to include private and hybrid options.<ref name="mkavis"/>

Public PaaS is derived from software as a service (SaaS),<ref name="jschofield"/> and is situated in cloud computing between SaaS and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).<ref name="bbutler"/> SaaS is software that is hosted in the cloud, so that it doesn't take up hard drive from the computer of the user or the servers of a company. IaaS provides virtual hardware from a provider with adjustable scalability.<ref name="bbutler"/> With IaaS, the user still has to manage the server, whereas with PaaS the server management is done by the provider.<ref>Andrew C. Oliver, "Which freaking PaaS should I use?" InfoWorld, October 8, 2012.</ref> Jelastic is the example of Public PaaS (still, the platform also provides Private and Hybrid types as well).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A private PaaS can typically be downloaded and installed either in a company's on-premises data center, or in a public cloud. Once the software is installed on one or more machines, the private PaaS arranges the application and database components into a single hosting platform.<ref>Jason Brooks, "Apprenda 3.0 Brings Private PaaS to .NET Developers," eWeek, January 6, 2012.</ref> Private PaaS vendors include Apprenda, which started out on the Microsoft .NET platform before rolling out a Java PaaS; Red Hat's OpenShift, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, Heroku and Platform.sh.<ref>Ben Kepes, "Apprenda Extends Its PaaS And Aims A Kick In The Direction of Red Hat," Forbes, October 6, 2014.</ref>

Hybrid PaaS is typically a deployment consisting of a mix of public and private deployments.

Communications platform as a service (CPaaS)

A CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to add real-time communications features (voice, video, and messaging) in their own applications without needing to build backend infrastructure and interfaces.Template:Cn

Mobile platform as a service

Initiated in 2012, mobile PaaS (mPaaS) provides development capabilities for mobile app designers and developers.<ref>Anthony Wing Kosner, "Developers in Demand: Platform As A Service Is Key to Growth of Mobile Cloud Computing," Forbes, June 8, 2012.</ref> The Yankee Group identified mPaaS as one of its themes for 2014.<ref>Yankee 2014 Predictions Mobility hits a tipping point Template:Webarchive, Yankee Group, 2014.</ref><ref>Christina Warren, "How to Pick a Server for Your App," Mashable, November 16, 2011.</ref>

Open PaaS

Open PaaS does not include hosting, but rather it provides open source software allowing a PaaS provider to run applications in an open source environment, such as Google App Engine. Some open platforms let the developer use any programming language, database, operating system or server to deploy their applications.<ref>"Interview With Brian Sullivan – Inventor of Open Platform As A Service," Template:Webarchive sullivansoftwaresystems.com, 2010.</ref>

PaaS for rapid development

In 2014, Forrester Research defined enterprise public cloud platforms for rapid developers as an emerging trend, naming a number of providers including Mendix, Salesforce.com, OutSystems and Acquia.<ref>"Forrester Wave: Enterprise Public Cloud Platforms," Q4 2014.</ref>

In 2015, 451 Research named Jelastic as a containerized solution, that expands alongside IaaS-PaaS convergence for hosting service providers, systems integrators and enterprises. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2018, Forrester Research published an updated report on Low Code Development Platforms. The report highlighted 14 vendors, naming AppSheet, Betty Blocks, and PowerApps as industry leaders. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Providers

There are various types of PaaS providers. All offer application hosting and a deployment environment, along with various integrated services. Services offer varying levels of scalability and maintenance.<ref name="dhinchcliffe"/> Developers can write an application and upload it to a PaaS that supports their software language of choice, and the application runs on that PaaS.<ref>Nancy Gohring, "Platform as a service heats up," Computerworld, July 8, 2013.</ref>

References

"Firebase - CrunchBase". CrunchBase. Retrieved June 11, 2014.

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