The top 5 fastest growing PaaS services
Cloud computing is one of the fastest-growing enterprise-based technologies today. Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud spending to grow by 18.4 percent in 2021. Valued at over $50 billion, PaaS (Platform as a Service) is the second most popular cloud service architecture among businesses after SaaS (Software as a Service) and is also a rapidly growing facet of the cloud industry.
This article looks at what makes PaaS a favorite solution among cloud users and highlights the top five fastest-growing PaaS services and applications.
The PaaS architecture
Let’s first discuss the basics of the PaaS architecture before getting into the PaaS applications and services available in the business IT market.
PaaS is a cloud-based platform designed for rapid software development, testing, and deployment. It provides a robust software development environment equipped with all the necessary resources for software delivery, including libraries, runtimes, and computing power. PaaS cloud services come in three primary flavors, depending on the level of abstraction and use case:
PaaS tied to SaaS
This type of PaaS offering is integrated into a SaaS product – basically, an in-built PaaS service within a SaaS application. It creates a developer ecosystem allowing users and independent software vendors (ISVs) to develop and run new features on the host SaaS platform.
PaaS tied to an operating environment
Most Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers now offer PaaS capabilities high up in the software stack. Instead of providing just the bare necessities of a standalone PaaS platform, some cloud services providers also give you the tools to build and run applications in a supported environment.
Open PaaS
An open PaaS is not tied to a SaaS product or operating environment. It allows users to set up their own software development platforms on the cloud. Open PaaS offers flexibility, but it also adds complexity and cost.
Examples of popular PaaS services
Here’s a list of the top five PaaS services and products.
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda is a serverless PaaS platform offered by Amazon as part of Amazon Web Service (AWS). It’s an event-driven computing service that runs code in response to an event while automatically managing the computing infrastructure needed to run that code.
SAP Integration Suite
Formally known as SAP Cloud Platform, this is an enterprise integration platform as a service (EiPaaS). It allows organizations to connect supported cloud and on-prem applications with other pre-built SAP and non-SAP products.
Google App Engine
Google App Engine is a fully managed serverless environment for developing and hosting web applications. It supports various programming languages, including PHP, JavaScript, .NET, Java, Python, Ruby, and Go.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Amazon’s Elastic Beanstalk is the quickest way to build and launch web apps within the AWS environment. It is mainly used to orchestrate various AWS cloud services, such as S3, EC2, Elastic Load Balancing, and CloudWatch.
Azure Cloud Services
Microsoft Azure hosts several PaaS offerings to support various software development and deployment needs. Examples are Azure App Service, Azure Functions, PowerApps, and Azure Web Apps. Similar to Amazon’s and Google’s cloud services, Azure also hosts all three types of PaaS services under one roof.
To summarize, cloud services generally come in three distinct architectures – SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Each architecture is further divided into various types of services – three in the case of PaaS. And that’s not all; thousands of software vendors package these services into multiple uniquely branded subscriptions. It becomes challenging to figure out what your business needs and select the right cloud brand, services, and products with so many options.
The world of cloud computing can be confusing. But we’re here to help. GB Tech is a managed cloud services provider with over three decades of experience in the IT support industry. Our team of cloud, IT, and digital security experts are on hand to help your business deploy and utilize the most efficient cloud solutions. Reach out, and let’s get started.
