PaaS (Cloud Computing) takes lead in IT

PaaS takes the lead

“Cloud will define next gen IT”

This statement seldom crosses our ears. But what is it in cloud that will actually gain pace? Well, the answer is PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). How? Let’s see.

What Consists of cloud computing

Many companies are now using cloud computing in different ways according to their needs. Their needs vary from hosting internal communication, CRM to get rental storage, servers, etc. Cloud services with its three layers address all these. The Lowest layer, IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service) helps in providing solutions for Networking, Security, Sys mgmt, Servers, Storage, etc. The Uppermost layer is SaaS (Software-as-as-service), which encompasses services for Emails, CRM, ERP, etc. The middle layer is PaaS.

What is PAAS

PaaS provides a platform over the web to the buyers for creation and development of software. Thus it brings in the best of both the other layers near it. While the buying and maintaining hardware and software remains Cloud provider’s baby, it gives the buyer a flexibility of altering and editing the software by providing a platform to do so (not available in SaaS).

Where PaaS is useful

A lot of companies now work in an environment, where multiple developers from multiple locations are simultaneously involved. PaaS eases this by providing:

- Development, Test, Deployment, Hosting and Maintenance of applications in an integrated development environment.

- Architecture where multiple concurrent users utilize the same application.
- Integration to web services and databases and support for development team collaboration.

Given the services, PaaS provided the best trade-off between investment required and capabilities needed. It defines and supports a growth path for companies in their development stages in an efficient way by allowing them to concentrate on their business.

Future of PaaS

With market of PaaS predicted to be nearly $1Bn by 2016, it has shown the maximum growth until among other Cloud offerings. The leading PaaS service providers such as Microsoft, IBM, Google & SalesForce are keen on increasing their market share.

According to IDC, a popular analyst firm, 65.2 percent of PaaS revenue was derived from the Americas in 2012, and that's not expected to change much by 2017, dropping only to 62.3 percent. But PaaS revenue in Asia-Pacific including Japan with 14.1 percent market share in 2012 is expected to grow to 19.0 percent in 2017. Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for 20.7 percent of PaaS revenue in 2012, but that total is expected to drop slightly, to 18.7 percent, by 2017.

Surely there are shortcomings in PaaS, but with IT giants investing heavily in research and innovation in cloud computing, these can be surely fixed. Emergence of new players (while they prefer collaborating with leaders, so they don’t have to reinvent the common platform services) is certainly adding new value to PaaS. PaaS is no doubt taking lead in IT.