Platform as a service

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Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computing platform and one or more applications, without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching the application(s), and to allow developers to create, develop, and package such software bundles. [1] [2]

Contents

Development and uses

PaaS can be delivered in three ways:

The first [5] public platform as a service was Zimki, launched by Fotango, a London-based company owned by Canon Europe. It was developed in 2005, had a beta launch in March 2006 and a public launch at EuroOSCON in 2006. [6]

At the time of its closure, Zimki had several thousand developer accounts. It had demonstrated the technical viability of Platform as a Service, but also provided the first example of the perils of being dependent on a single provider. [7] This was highlighted when the CEO (Simon Wardley, known for Wardley maps) announced at OSCON 2007 that Zimki would no longer be open-sourced and discussed the future of what was then called framework-as-a-service (later called platform-as-a-service) covering the importance of a market of providers based on an open-source reference model. [8]

The original intent of PaaS was to simplify the writing of code, 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. [9]

PaaS provides an environment for developers and companies to create, host and deploy applications, saving developers from the complexities of infrastructure (setting up, configuring and managing elements such as servers and databases). PaaS can improve the speed of developing an app, and allow its user to focus on the application itself. With PaaS, the customer 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. [3] [10] Development tools provided by the vendor are customized according to the needs of the user. [11] The user can choose to maintain the software, or have the vendor maintain it. [3]

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. [12] [13]

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.

Disadvantages of various PaaS providers as cited by their users include increased pricing at larger scales, [14] lack of operational features, [15] reduced control, [15] and the difficulties of traffic routing systems. [16]

Types

Public, private and hybrid

There are several types of PaaS, including public, private and hybrid. [9] PaaS was originally intended for applications on public cloud services, before expanding to include private and hybrid options. [9]

Public PaaS is derived from software as a service (SaaS), [17] and is situated in cloud computing between SaaS and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). [1] SaaS is software hosted in the cloud so that it does not take up hard drive space on the computers of users. IaaS provides virtual hardware from a provider with adjustable scalability. [1] With IaaS, the user still has to manage the server, whereas with PaaS the server management is done by the provider. [18]

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. [19]

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

Communications platform as a service

A communications platform as a service (CPaaS) is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to add real-time communications features (voice, video, and messaging) in their own applications without building back-end infrastructure and interfaces. [20] Also, CPaaS and hardware and software specifications are specifically designed to support (tele)communications applications. These applications and their usage are much more sensitive to jitter, latency and packet losses. Hosted PBX, cellular networks, (near real-time) applications typically are deployed on CPaaS platforms.

Mobile platform as a service

Initiated in 2012, mobile PaaS (mPaaS) provides development capabilities for mobile app designers and developers. [21] The Yankee Group identified mPaaS as one of its themes for 2014. [22] [23]

Open PaaS

Open PaaS does not include hosting but 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. [24]

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. [25] 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. [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

A virtual appliance is a pre-configured virtual machine image, ready to run on a hypervisor; virtual appliances are a subset of the broader class of software appliances. Installation of a software appliance on a virtual machine and packaging that into an image creates a virtual appliance. Like software appliances, virtual appliances are intended to eliminate the installation, configuration and maintenance costs associated with running complex stacks of software.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a cloud computing service model by means of which computing resources are supplied by a cloud services provider. The IaaS vendor provides the storage, network, servers, and virtualization. This service enables users to free themselves from maintaining an on-premises data center. The IaaS provider is hosting these resources in either the public cloud, the private cloud, or the hybrid cloud.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud computing</span> Form of shared Internet-based computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each of which is a data center. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and typically uses a pay-as-you-go model, which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to unexpected operating expenses for users.

If a software product is offered as Hybrid SaaS or Hybrid Cloud, it means that it combines elements of both Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premises software deployment models.

Kaavo is a cloud computing management company. Kaavo was founded in November 2007 in the U.S. Kaavo pioneered top-down application-centric management of cloud infrastructure across public, private, and hybrid clouds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenNebula</span> Cloud-computing platform for managing heterogeneous distributed infrastructure

OpenNebula is an open source cloud computing platform for managing heterogeneous data center, public cloud and edge computing infrastructure resources. OpenNebula manages on-premise and remote virtual infrastructure to build private, public, or hybrid implementations of Infrastructure as a Service and multi-tenant Kubernetes deployments. The two primary uses of the OpenNebula platform are data center virtualization and cloud deployments based on the KVM hypervisor, LXD/LXC system containers, and AWS Firecracker microVMs. The platform is also capable of offering the cloud infrastructure necessary to operate a cloud on top of existing VMware infrastructure. In early June 2020, OpenNebula announced the release of a new Enterprise Edition for corporate users, along with a Community Edition. OpenNebula CE is free and open-source software, released under the Apache License version 2. OpenNebula CE comes with free access to patch releases containing critical bug fixes but with no access to the regular EE maintenance releases. Upgrades to the latest minor/major version is only available for CE users with non-commercial deployments or with significant open source contributions to the OpenNebula Community. OpenNebula EE is distributed under a closed-source license and requires a commercial Subscription.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FUJITSU Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5</span> Cloud computing platform

FUJITSU Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5 is a Fujitsu cloud computing platform that aims to deliver standardized enterprise-class public cloud services globally. It offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) from Fujitsu's data centres to provide computing resources that can be employed on-demand and suited to customers needs.

Carrenza, was a cloud-computing company based in London, United Kingdom. The company was acquired by Six Degrees in 2016.

HP CloudSystem is a cloud infrastructure from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that combines storage, servers, networking and software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HP Cloud</span> Set of cloud computing services

HP Cloud was a set of cloud computing services available from Hewlett-Packard that offered public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, managed private cloud and other cloud services. It was the combination of the previous HP Converged Cloud business unit and HP Cloud Services, an OpenStack-based public cloud. It was marketed to enterprise organizations to combine public cloud services with internal IT resources to create hybrid clouds, or a mix of private and public cloud environments, from around 2011 until 2016.

Backend as a service (BaaS), sometimes also referred to as mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), is a service for providing web app and mobile app developers with a way to easily build a backend to their frontend applications. Features available include user management, push notifications, and integration with social networking services. These services are provided via the use of custom software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs). BaaS is a relatively recent development in cloud computing, with most BaaS startups dating from 2011 or later. Some of the most popular service providers are AWS Amplify and Firebase.

Network as a service (NaaS) brings software-defined networking (SDN), programmable networking and API-based operation to WAN services, and transport, hybrid cloud, multicloud, Private Network Interconnect, and internet exchange points.

PaaSage is a project partially funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, sometimes abbreviated to FP7. PaaSage is a European Union funded research project involving partners such as ERCIM, SINTEF, STFC, University of Stuttgart, INRIA, CETIC, FORTH, BE.WAN, EVRY, Sysfera, Flexiant, Lufthansa Systems, GWDG, ASCS, University of Ulm, University of Oslo, AGH, IBSAC and University of Cyprus that aims at creating a development and deployment platform together with an appropriate methodology for helping software engineers creating new applications and migrating old applications that can run on multiple Cloud platforms. PaaSage is a notable example of European research efforts in the field of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

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Cloud management is the management of cloud computing products and services.

Multicloud refers to a company utilizing multiple cloud computing services from various public vendors within a single, heterogeneous architecture. This approach enhances cloud infrastructure capabilities and optimizes costs. It also refers to the distribution of cloud assets, software, applications, etc. across several cloud-hosting environments. With a typical multicloud architecture utilizing two or more public clouds as well as multiple private clouds, a multicloud environment aims to eliminate the reliance on any single cloud provider and thereby alleviate vendor lock-in.

"X as a service" is a phrasal template for any business model in which a product use is offered as a subscription-based service rather than as an artifact owned and maintained by the customer. Originating from the software as a service concept that appeared in the 2010s with the advent of cloud computing, the template has expanded to numerous offerings in the field of information technology and beyond it. The term XaaS can mean "anything as a service".

Virtuozzo is a software company that develops virtualization and cloud management software for cloud computing providers, managed services providers and internet hosting service providers. The company's software enables service providers to offer Infrastructure as a service, Container-as-a-Service, Platform as a service, Kubernetes-as-a-Service, WordPress-as-a-Service and other solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oracle Cloud</span> Cloud computing service

Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed data centers. The company allows these services to be provisioned on demand over the Internet.

Oracle Cloud Platform refers to a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings by Oracle Corporation as part of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. These offerings are used to build, deploy, integrate and extend applications in the cloud. The offerings support a variety of programming languages, databases, tools and frameworks including Oracle-specific, open source and third-party software and systems.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brandon Butler (February 11, 2013). "PaaS Primer: What is platform as a service and why does it matter?"". Network World].
  2. ↑ William Y. Chang, Hosame Abu-Amara, Jessica Feng Sanford (15 November 2010). Transforming Enterprise Cloud Services. London: Springer, 2010. p. 55-56. ISBN   9789048198467.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 3 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.
  4. ↑ Mell, P. M.; Grance, T. (2011). The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (PDF) (Report). National Institute of Science and Technology. doi:10.6028/NIST.SP.800-145. Special Publication 800-145.
  5. ↑ Wardley, Simon (20 Feb 2015). "On open source, gameplay and cloud". Bits or pieces?. Simon Wardley. Archived from the original (HTML) on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  6. ↑ Zimki, hosted JavaScript environment, http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/09/zimki-hosted-javascript-enviro.html
  7. ↑ "Zimki closure shows the perils of hosted web platforms". 27 September 2007.
  8. ↑ OSCON Keynote 2007, http://mais.uol.com.br/view/v1xaxe2lamb3/oscon--commoditisation-of-it-and-what-the-future-holds-0402D4B10386?types=A
  9. 1 2 3 Mike Kavis, "Top 8 Reasons Why Enterprises Are Passing On PaaS," Forbes , September 15, 2014.
  10. ↑ Sean Ludwig, "An ugly duckling no more: Why Platform-as-a-Service is poised for huge growth," VentureBeat, October 8, 2012.
  11. ↑ Peiro, Andrea (January 2009). "Keep Your Head in the Cloud". Inc.
  12. ↑ M. Boniface, "Platform-as-a-Service Architecture for Real-Time Quality of Service Management in Clouds," ieee.org, May 2010.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ Flower, Zachary. "Weigh the benefits of PaaS providers against lock-in risks". searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  15. 1 2 Kavis, Mike. "Top 8 Reasons Why Enterprises Are Passing On PaaS". Forbes.
  16. ↑ "James Somers (Ft. Andrew Warner, ATodd, Chrissy & Tom Lehman) – Heroku's Ugly Secret". Genius.
  17. ↑ Jack Schofield, "Google angles for business users with ‘platform as a service’," The Guardian , April 16, 2008.
  18. ↑ Andrew C. Oliver, "Which freaking PaaS should I use?" InfoWorld , October 8, 2012.
  19. ↑ Jason Brooks, "Apprenda 3.0 Brings Private PaaS to .NET Developers," eWeek , January 6, 2012.
  20. ↑ "What Is Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS)? Definition from SearchUnifiedCommunications". SearchUnifiedCommunications. Retrieved 2022-02-24.
  21. ↑ Anthony Wing Kosner, "Developers in Demand: Platform As A Service Is Key to Growth of Mobile Cloud Computing," Forbes, June 8, 2012.
  22. ↑ Yankee 2014 Predictions Mobility hits a tipping point Archived 2014-01-22 at the Wayback Machine , Yankee Group, 2014.
  23. ↑ Christina Warren, "How to Pick a Server for Your App," Mashable, November 16, 2011.
  24. ↑ "Interview With Brian Sullivan – Inventor of Open Platform As A Service," Archived 2013-10-04 at the Wayback Machine sullivansoftwaresystems.com, 2010.
  25. ↑ Dion Hinchcliffe, "Comparing Amazon’s and Google’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Offerings," ZDNet, April 11, 2008.
  26. ↑ Nancy Gohring, "Platform as a service heats up," Computerworld , July 8, 2013.
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