By IT Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
PaaS is often defined alongside its “as a service” counterparts: infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS).
- PaaS provides features specific to building and scaling software and apps.
- IaaS supplies underlying hardware components like servers and storage.
- SaaS gives buyers the full, ready-to-use application. (Full service!)
Common platform-as-a-service examples include Google Cloud’s App Engine, Microsoft’s Azure App Service, and Heroku from Salesforce.
PaaS services may provide essential software development pieces like data center infrastructure, networking equipment, security, storage, operating systems, development kits, libraries, database management, and user interfaces.
- The benefits: For a subscription price, you have what you need to build an application; that can include sophisticated analytics and testing tools. Many PaaS offerings also provide automated capabilities like backups, logs, rollbacks, and load balancing. A platform accessed via the internet, too, enables easy collaboration from various remote locations.
- The drawbacks: As with any purchase from a third party, a customer is subject to potential vendor lock-in. Additionally, a developer may be restricted to the company’s set choices for deployment and tool usage, and a service disruption or outage at a PaaS provider could lead to unexpected downtime.
Just as you were beginning to tell the difference between all the “as a services” out there, PaaS models have added two more familiar letters. A modern PaaS may handle AI, too, including features that enable its deployments, like access to a large language model, database connections, agent orchestration, and other capabilities.
