Cloud Management: Top Reasons to Adopt Platform as a Service

By Erin Harrison, Executive Editor, Cloud Computing

While many IT decision makers have been focusing on the benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)), big data is turning their attention to the advantages of Platform as a Service (PaaS). In fact, new research from IBM (News - Alert) Center for Applied Insights shows that IT decision makers cite big data as one of the main reasons to adopt platform as a service in their businesses, as highlighted in a recent blog post by Rick Blaisdell, chief technology officer of ConnectEdu.

“Early adopters of PaaS, known as ‘pioneers,’ saw the strategic benefits of PaaS as a way to innovate. It is believed that one of the most important benefits of PaaS is the ability to use patterns,” Blaisdell explained. “PaaS patterns give consumers a set of rich tools, which allows them to build apps very quickly without worrying about big technology spending.”

Due to the continual explosive growth of data, there is a need to make application development and operational processes more efficient, according to the IBM research titled, “Exploring the Frontiers of Cloud Computing: Insights from Platform-as-a-Service Pioneers.”

“Pioneering enterprises fully understand the PaaS opportunity, embrace the concept and are assertively moving forward with their strategy to integrate it into their operations,” the report further noted.

Benefits of Platform as a Service, as outlined by Blaisdell, include the following:

·         Multiple business units are able to develop apps on a uniformed platform; however, CIOs are still reluctant to leverage PaaS for strategic applications because of the risk of vendor lock-in. Another challenge when adopting PaaS is security and control standpoint. However, this creates the opportunity for Proprietary PaaS to come forward and become more flexible about incorporating languages, API’s or frameworks.

·         Cloud platform as a service (PaaS) offers the speed and savings of alternatives such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS), but while allowing the user to retain choice and control over applications and data.

·         PaaS platforms are flexible and scalable and can easily adapt in order to meet the always-changing demands of the software development industry. “PaaS suites can be a good option for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), which don’t have robust integration facilities,” Blaisdell said. “In the case of large enterprises, PaaS offerings are best suited in order to reduce costs as integration can be less expensive than in the traditional way. The companies expected to gradually move to a superset of functionalities offered by PaaS are the one that have used integration-as-a-service offerings in the past.”

Finally, PaaS opens up many opportunities for businesses to “mix and match” services, Blaisdell added. Deployments will be determined by the specific needs of organizations, as well as the capabilities of PaaS to adapt to businesses.