Platform as a Service (PaaS)

What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing concept that allows customers to access hardware and software capabilities via the internet from a third-party supplier. These resources are frequently required for application development. A PaaS provider hosts hardware and software on its network. Because of this, PaaS relieves developers of the need to set up proprietary gear and software to create or execute new applications. The ease of use and practicality of PaaS products are frequently praised. In light of potential cost reductions compared to on-premises solutions, a company may find the switch to PaaS enticing.

PaaS Architecture

PaaS provide wide range of application development tool facility for the application development community on internet. One way to think of PaaS is as a workflow with many functional phases. In the process of transferring an application onto a production platform, each phase completes a specific task. The phases aren't always sequential steps. They might not happen in the sequence stated below but rather in parallel.

• Deployment
• Provisioning
• Lifecycle management
• Service management
• Reporting

Characteristics of the PaaS Service Model

The following are some of the characteristics of the PaaS model:

• PaaS offers web services interfaces that let us integrate applications running on different platforms. PaaS is simple to integrate with other apps. PaaS offers built-in capabilities for creating a workflow, approval procedures, and business rules.

• PaaS provides a development environment that is web browser based. The developer can use point-and-click tools or an Application Programming Interface to construct databases and change application code.

• Web service interfaces, scalability, and security are all included with PaaS.

How Does PaaS Work?

PaaS does not entirely take the role of an organization's IT infrastructure for software development. It is offered through the hosted infrastructure of a cloud service provider. Users use web browsers to access the services most frequently. PaaS can be used to supply services like Java development and application hosting through public, private, and hybrid clouds.

Types of PaaS

The following are the various types of PaaS that are available to the users:

Public PaaS

The public cloud is the setting where this concept works best. While the cloud provider oversees the delivery of all other significant IT components required for hosting applications, such as OSes, databases, servers, and storage system networks, public PaaS enables the user to manage software deployment.

Private PaaS

A private PaaS alternative tries to maintain the security, compliance, advantages, and potentially reduced costs of the private data centre while delivering the agility of public PaaS. The user's firewall, which is generally managed in the business's on-site data centre, is typically where this model is given as an appliance or piece of software. Any kind of infrastructure can be used to create a private PaaS, which can operate on a company's unique private cloud.

Hybrid PaaS

Hybrid PaaS combines public and private PaaS. It gives businesses the freedom of infinite capacity offered by a public PaaS with the savings and control of possessing an internal infrastructure in a private PaaS. Hybrid PaaS use a hybrid cloud.

Communications PaaS (CPaaS)

CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that helps developers integrate real-time communications into their programs without requiring back-end infrastructure and interfaces. Real-time communications typically occur via apps that are made especially for these uses. Like Skype and WhatsApp.

Mobile Paas (mPaaS)

mPaaS refers to the process of configuring mobile apps using a for-profit integrated development environment. Coding knowledge is not necessary for using mPaaS. Public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises storage are frequently supported by mPaaS, which is supplied over a web browser. The service is often leased, and the monthly cost varies depending on the number of supported features and associated devices.

Open PaaS

Open PaaS is a cost-free, open-source, business-focused collaboration platform that is appealing on all devices. It offers useful web apps like calendars, contacts, and mail clients. Users of Open PaaS can launch new applications rapidly because of its design. Its objective is to create a PaaS platform dedicated to enterprise collaboration applications, particularly those running on hybrid clouds.

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

IPaaS is a broad term for various services that integrate various workloads and apps that might not naturally communicate or work together. An iPaaS platform aims to provide and support those varying integrations and lessen the obstacles faced by the business in getting various workloads to cooperate across the enterprise.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

A database workload hosted by a provider and made available as a service is known as DBaaS. All database types, including NoSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL database applications, can be used with DBaaS. A DBaaS model often comes with everything users need to run the database and may be accessed by local and other cloud-based workloads via APIs. It is typically offered through a recurring subscription.

Middleware as a service (MWaaS)

With the help of MWaaS, enterprises can use APIs to link complicated and dissimilar applications by connecting front-end client requests to back-end processing or storage operations. MWaaS and iPaaS are comparable because both strongly emphasize networking and integrations. A subset of MWaaS activities, which can also include B2B integration, mobile application integration, and IoT integration, can, in some circumstances, contain iPaaS capabilities.

Purpose-built PaaS Types

For developing particular types of applications or apps that connect with specific types of hardware, software, or devices, many suppliers provide PaaS solutions of the following types:

AIPaaS

Development teams can create artificial intelligence (AI) applications using AIPaaS (PaaS for Artificial Intelligence) without having to incur the frequently prohibitive costs of buying, managing, and maintaining the significant computing power, storage capabilities, and networking capacity these applications require. AiPaaS often provides ready-made APIs for integrating specific AI capabilities into current or new applications. It also offers pre-trained machine learning and deep learning models that developers may use as-is or customize.

IPaaS

IPaaS (Integration Platform-as-a-Service) is an application integration solution hosted on the cloud. IPaaS offers enterprises a standardized approach to linking data, processes, and services across public cloud, private cloud, and software without having to buy, install and maintain their own backend integration hardware, middleware, and software on-premises settings.

cPaaS

cPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) enables developers to quickly add voice (inbound and outbound calls), video (including teleconferencing), and messaging (text and social media) features to their applications without spending money on specialized communications hardware and software.

mPaaS

Mobile platform as a service, or mPaaS, is a PaaS that makes it easier to design mobile applications. For accessing device-specific elements like the phone's camera, microphone, motion sensor, and geolocation (or GPS) capabilities, mPaaS often offers low-code (even basic drag-and-drop) approaches.

Popular PaaS Providers

Numerous PaaS companies and products provide the tools and services required to create enterprise applications and integrations in the cloud. Some top platforms and providers are Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud Platform (OCP), Heroku container-based PaaS, OpenStack, Apache CloudStack, etc.

What's included in a PaaS?

Specific PaaS features can differ between different suppliers and product offerings. However, the standard set of PaaS capabilities often consists of infrastructure, analytics, development tools, middleware, OSes, and database management tools:

• Infrastructure: Everything that IaaS includes is also part of PaaS. This indicates that PaaS providers will manage the servers, storage, data centres, and networking resources. This can also refer to the user interface (UI) or portal that users utilize to communicate with the PaaS system and its services.

• OSes: The PaaS provider offers OSes for apps to run on and for developers to use when creating new applications.

• Databases: In addition to giving the customer organization's developers access to database management tools, PaaS providers frequently maintain databases.

• Tools for developing, testing, and designing applications: Customers who use PaaS get all the tools they require to create and maintain apps. No matter where you are physically present, you may use a browser to access these resources online. Debuggers, source code editors, and compilers are only a few of the various software development tools.

• Middleware: Middleware, the program that connects operating systems and client applications, is frequently included with PaaS. As a result, PaaS subscribers are not required to devote their internal developers and resources to the development of middleware.

• Tools for administration and monitoring: To help business users understand how the PaaS is being used, help explain per-use prices and utilization characteristics, and give business intelligence services like monitoring and analytics, PaaS providers usually include these in their packages.

PaaS Examples

Some of the PaaS examples include:

Microsoft Azure

One of the most well-known PaaS instances you may encounter is Microsoft Azure. Its widespread use throughout the world may be credited with its popularity. Due to its size, Microsoft Azure offers all three of the fundamental cloud models. You have the freedom to program in ASP.NET, PHP, or Node.js using Microsoft Azure. It aids businesses in creating the most straightforward capability for transferring all of their infrastructure and apps. From the first line of code to the last deployment of the code, it may support each stage of the development of an app. It offers complex business analytics applications as well as mobile services. With Microsoft Azure, you can start up cheaply and pay as your app's traffic increases.

Heroku

Heroku is an independent platform that is focused on applications. It is renowned for its simple and user-friendly user interface. Because of its simplicity, it is the most favorable choice among beginners. Although there is room for data integration, most of it is made up of ecosystems that are only available through the platform. However, it isn't regarded as the PaaS example that scales the best. You may deploy directly from well-known repositories like GitHub and Git with the help of Heroku's Developer Experience Module, which also includes a dashboard that makes it simple to add apps and tools to your solution.

AWS Lambda

The AWS Lambda is a component of the AWS Cloud. It has a serverless architecture and is fully integrable with all of the different AWS services. Any library and language used by third parties can be easily integrated with AWS. Thanks to the platform's fully automated administration, users are free to concentrate solely on the services they intend to offer. Through the use of unique API endpoints, AWS Lambda enables its users to create custom backend services that may be called whenever they are needed. Automatic scaling to the volume of incoming support requests is a feature of AWS Lambda. The platform was created to safeguard user code against machine language problems and is highly fault-tolerant, enabling it to function without a hitch.

Google App Engine

The Google Cloud's Google App Engine offers tools and apps that are extremely scalable and may be used as a component of your service. It is compatible with a large number of languages. Its scalability guarantees a significantly faster time to market and a**utomates scalability** as traffic grows. In addition, it is simple to use and interoperable with a wide range of APIs. The serverless Google App Engine has zero downtime and thus is always accessible.

Dokku

Dokku claims to be the smallest PaaS platform ever developed. Doku is based on the Docker technology for containers. The functionality it provides to developers is constrained by its tiny size. However, the fact that it is entirely free and open source may be responsible for its large user base. Despite the inherent limitations in scalability, it enables extensive integration. Dokku provides a variety of deployment techniques and walks you through the procedure step-by-step. Additionally, it aids in network management, integration, and setup.

Apprenda Cloud Platform

Apprenda Cloud Platform incorporates existing open source softwares to increase resilience. The ability of Apprenda Cloud Platform to migrate services from conventional applications using the dot net framework to a PaaS environment is its key differentiator. You can quickly deploy and operate Java and.NET apps using Apprenda. The platform's developer and IT operations are entirely automated, and programmers now have complete control. Additionally, programmers are given the power to specify the security guidelines for their apps. You can operate several clouds using Apprenda, whether they are private or public.

Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Pivotal Cloud Foundry is an open-source Cloud Foundry platform distribution. Cloud Foundry is an effective framework that is used for quickly creating and deploying apps. Cloud Foundry's workflows are highly efficient, and the framework itself is incredibly scalable. It enables programs to scale automatically and portably. It also includes instruments for managing the security of the infrastructure and applications. Cloud Foundry supports the majority of APIs, and it also offers role-based access for deployed apps. Pivotal Cloud Foundry enhances what Cloud Foundry already offered with a few new capabilities, such as a more user-friendly interface and quicker update processes.

Things to Consider When Choosing a PaaS Provider

The transition to PaaS can be problematic. A thorough comprehension of business requirements, precise identification of PaaS products and capabilities, and a large amount of trust are necessary for PaaS's success. Several procedures can aid businesses in their assessment of and transition to PaaS:

• Identifying the requirements: Before moving to a PaaS model, one should identify precisely what a PaaS model needs to do for a business and how implementing an appropriate PaaS would be more advantageous to the company than using conventional local toolsets.

• Study check the provider: Choosing a PaaS provider is essential as the provider will act as your business partner for the next 5-10 years. Learning about the provider's staffing, business history and model, leadership team, service support, and PaaS roadmap is important.

Advantages and Disadvantages of PaaS

PaaS's main advantage to users is its simplicity and convenience. The PaaS provider will provide most of the infrastructure and other IT services. The users of PaaS can access it from any location using a web browser. A lot of PaaS offerings are designed with software development in mind. These platforms give developers access to computation and storage infrastructures as well as text editing, version control, compiling, and testing services that facilitate the speedy and effective development of new software. Additionally, a PaaS product can make it possible for development teams to cooperate and work together no matter where they are physically located.

Enterprises can do away with the capital costs they typically incur for on-premises infrastructure and software by being able to pay on a recurring (subscription) or per-use basis. PaaS effectively transfers control over supplying, maintaining, and updating essential tools from the internal IT staff to an external PaaS supplier.

However, PaaS has some drawbacks, such as service availability or resilience issues. Vendor lock-in is a problem because consumers find it challenging to move various services and data from one PaaS platform to a rival PaaS platform. When choosing a PaaS provider, users must consider the business risks of service outages and vendor lock-in. Also, customers may be harmed, and productivity may suffer if a provider encounters a service outage or other infrastructure disturbance. Even so, PaaS providers typically supply and maintain pretty high uptimes. Availability is, however, controlled by the Service Level Agreement of the provider (SLA).

Another potential problem is when a PaaS product undergoes internal changes. The impact on users may be challenging and disruptive, for instance, if a PaaS provider no longer supports a certain programming language, chooses to supply an alternative set of development tools, or even discontinues parts or all of the platform's components. Users must adhere to the PaaS provider's service roadmap to understand how the provider's strategy will affect their environment and capabilities.

Difference between PaaS and iPaaS

Even though the terms PaaS and iPaaS sound similar, they are powered by separate technologies and serve different functions. IPaaS automation tools are frequently used to integrate on-premises data and applications with those kept in the cloud. They link software applications deployed in various settings. An iPaaS platform can be incorporated into MWaaS solutions because it is more closely associated with middleware and is treated as such. On the other hand, PaaS offers both cloud infrastructure and online delivery of application development tools.

Difference between PaaS and Serverless Computing

The backend architectures for Serverless computing and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are somewhat comparable in that they both keep the entire backend structure hidden from developers. Most use cases will operate best with either one or the other of the two types of architecture, but not both, due to several significant variances. For example, a PaaS provider gives more control over the deployment environment as compared to the control that the developer has in Serverless computing. The application scales automatically in Serverless computing, but it needs to be configured in the case of PaaS to set up auto-scaling. Thus Scalability, cost, startup time, tools, and the ability to deploy at the network edge are some of the main differences between PaaS and serverless.