PaaS: Platform as a Service Guide

Platform as a Service, or PaaS is a set of cloud-based services that enable business users and developers to build applications at a speed that on-premise solutions cannot match. Built on top of cloud computing infrastructure, PaaS offers scalable and managed computing resources, ensuring developers have the necessary infrastructure without the complexity of managing it. As a category within cloud computing services focused on application development, PaaS eliminates the need for setting up and maintaining servers, patching, upgrades, authentication, and so on, allowing users to concentrate on crafting the best user experience possible. PaaS supports development teams by providing a comprehensive development environment that facilitates collaboration and accelerates project timelines. It also delivers additional services such as workflow and design tools and rich APIs, all intended to help business users and developers create applications that delight their users.

Successful companies in today’s business world are the ones that put the customer at the centre of what they do. One easy way to facilitate that is by providing customer-friendly web applications and services that enable high-quality service and support. So, for companies developing apps, why opt for a platform as a service instead of creating the facilities to do this on your premises?

In the past, businesses started by building and developing their apps. This demanded server space, software to create programming environments and security to keep everything safe on the premises. That often meant complex software stacks, frequent updates, hardware maintenance and investing a lot of money in an on-premise environment to help them build apps that become outdated very quickly. Overall, it is an expensive solution in terms of both time and money. A cloud service provider offers PaaS solutions that alleviate the need for in-house infrastructure, streamlining the app development process and significantly reducing costs.

Development tools evolve fast; suddenly, you’re using yesterday’s interface and yesterday’s technology. Businesses started looking for solutions to help speed up the process and make it cheaper and easier to create the needed apps. The first to seek more efficient options were businesses already outsourcing other areas of computing services – such as cloud-based software services for recruitment, marketing, or travel and expense management. They looked for an external answer to their internal problem.

PaaS helps developers and business users focus on building great apps with clicks & code without having to worry about infrastructure and operating systems. Development tools, servers and programming environments are readily accessible via the cloud without the complexity and expense of creating them in-house. PaaS solutions enable apps to be developed and hosted faster and with very low setup costs without the risk of delays or inefficiencies caused by infrastructure issues. PaaS allows developers to concentrate on what they do best to produce high-quality results faster. PaaS is part of a family of cloud computing tools, which includes Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Everything as a Service (XaaS). The cloud computing model allows organisations to outsource computing services so they can dedicate more energy to their core business.

The best PaaS services provide a complete suite of tools and services to make a developer’s life as simple as possible, enhancing development capabilities with a range of tightly integrated applications and services. Here are 8 Core services we recommend you look for in a PaaS provider’s offering:

Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) ‐ more and more business is being done over mobiles. The number of different handset manufacturers and models makes it imperative to use all the opportunities available and ensure what you build works well on the range of devices in use. A good PaaS option will help you with this. For example, Salesforce mobile SDK is an open-source suite of familiar technologies – like REST API and OAuth 2.0 – that makes it easy to build mobile apps. It supports 3 development approaches to building mobile apps: native, HTML 5, and hybrid.

Social and mobile built-in ‐ social is no longer limited to personal use. It’s increasingly integrated into business contexts, driving staff productivity and customer engagement. If you consider PaaS as a solution, ensure it can help you deliver social and mobile apps. Many IT departments have struggled to keep pace with the new business requirements for mobile and social, and they lack the skills to carry out this project. Using a PaaS environment makes it far easier to leverage existing skills, bringing your organisation up to date faster and more efficiently.

Rich developer environment ‐ PaaS offerings provide developers with a comprehensive suite of tools and services, enabling them to quickly build engaging, customer-facing apps. This rich developer environment allows for instant changes and deployment, easy scaling, and complete control over each app component. Developers benefit from shortcuts, open APIs, libraries, and code, along with IDE, Sandbox, and ALM tools for app management, emphasising the development capabilities and efficiencies of orchestration and automation.

Fully managed cloud database ‐ a good PaaS solution should provide you with fully managed infrastructure that can scale beyond your current needs. Being fully managed also means it will be secure and meet the trust requirements of organisations that need mandatory data privacy and regulatory compliance.

Point-and-click app building ‐ an advanced PaaS solution isn’t just for developers. PaaS empowers business users without coding skills to deliver their solutions. Support for business-level services includes drag-and-drop page layouts, point-and-click field creation, plus reporting dashboards. It helps business users rapidly create apps that don’t add to the IT backlog yet remain compliant with your other app development.

Multi-language development ‐ Multi-language support means developers can use and build on their existing skills with apps written in the language that best suits their delivery and business goals. Platforms like Salesforce Heroku can handle languages like Python, Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Scala, Java and all JVM languages and more. Integration with existing workflow strategies, including Git, Continuous Integration, and DevOps, means adding more processes is unnecessary.

Cloud app marketplace ‐ an app marketplace is a single source for thousands of valuable shortcuts for businesses – here, you can find the tools to help you customise and extend your PaaS services. Rather than build your own, you can rely on the thousands of reviews to find trusted apps to do what you need. And because they’re on your PaaS provider’s common platform, you know they will integrate easily, giving you a unified user experience.

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Ultimately, Platform as a Service (PaaS) eliminates the expense and complexity of evaluating, buying, configuring, and managing all the hardware and software needed for custom-built applications by leveraging cloud infrastructure to deliver its services efficiently. This has both technical and business advantages.

PaaS is a critical component of the broader cloud services ecosystem, offering businesses on-demand resources, compliance solutions, and a distinction from iPaaS by providing cloud infrastructure and application development tools delivered over the internet.

Moving to a managed platform allows your technical team to concentrate on building apps and services that add value to your business. A good PaaS provider can offer you improvements in:

• expertise
• speed
• cost
• scale

Additionally, leveraging software development kits (SDKs) provided by PaaS platforms can significantly streamline app development, enabling your team to save on infrastructure, human resources, and time to market.

You'll have access to code libraries, app components, and other help. You'll also be inspired by great interface design, so your app will be thoroughly usable and look beautiful.

App development is faster because your IT and developers are no longer responsible for the hardware and software used to build, maintain and protect your application development platform.

It’s also quicker to get started. Once you have signed up to PaaS, you can start using the system straight away – no set-up time lag. For developers, accessing tools, templates, code libraries, and build packs can also reduce the time to release. For example, you can begin to create powerful apps from drag-and-drop components, including standard fields, reports and charts.

Upfront costs are reduced since you do not need to build anything before you begin developing. Using a platform like Salesforce also helps standardise and consolidate resources and app components. You don't have to keep reinventing the wheel each time you build a new app, which cuts your development costs. Capital costs - money tied up in costly and fast-depreciating IT assets - are removed to offset operational costs against business ROI.

Designing apps for millions of connected devices creates potential scalability and security challenges. A popular consumer app can easily overwhelm a data centre, and your brand can take a big hit if the end-user experience suffers. Services like Instagram and Twitter process millions of posts each minute. While business apps are less likely to boom to this extent, if your app does exceed expectations, a cloud-based solution means you'll be able to take advantage of the situation.

No business wants to prioritise managing servers and patching operating systems over delivering their core products and services. With a cloud-based platform, that’s not even a possibility. Using an integrated platform also offers an opportunity to improve business processes like workflow, reporting and social feeds. Your business can save time, money and effort thanks to:

Easy integration with legacy systems ‐ you can use apps that incorporate data from your existing systems like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. It can help you unlock and modernise back-office systems with point-and-click simplicity.

Real-time information ‐ you can create apps that deliver real-time data and updates to employees and managers, allowing them to make better business decisions. You can create apps to help with workflow and approval processes too.

Easier IT maintenance ‐ the vendor looks after the platform, so you just have to look after the apps themselves – reducing your IT overheads.

Shared insights ‐ with thousands of businesses using the platform, large-scale PaaS providers like Salesforce are quick to respond to user needs and solve common issues swiftly. That means you can quickly benefit from tried and trusted solutions.

By leveraging PaaS, organisations can redirect a significant portion of their budgets from “keeping the lights on” to creating applications that provide real business value."

You can grow your business faster by streamlining internal processes and connecting better with customers and suppliers. A platform approach means solutions will be more secure, faster and better value for money. Many enterprises are now looking to outsource non-core services, and they’re choosing PaaS because:

• The technology is mature ‐ the ability to automate processes and use predefined components and building blocks makes the PaaS proposition attractive for businesses that need consistency and reliability
• Flexibility is paramount ‐ businesses need to be fleet of foot to compete – and using platform services allows for innovation, scalability and affordability for every size of the enterprise.
• The business benefits add up ‐ the advantages of cost savings, speed of development, and security, which offer real advantages that are hard for businesses to replicate using internal systems. Without these savings, the development costs of creating apps that keep pace with the market is fast becoming prohibitive.

Outsourcing software is a proven solution – and PaaS is a natural next step. If your business is focused on future growth, PaaS is not just an option worth considering – it’s an essential tool to have at your disposal.

Find out more about PaaS from Salesforce and discover how it could benefit your company.