Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides a complete development-to-deployment environment in the cloud, including infrastructure, middleware, development tools, and database management systems, enabling businesses to build, deploy, and launch applications without managing back-end infrastructure.
Core Capabilities of PaaS Software
To qualify for inclusion in the PaaS category, a product must:
- Provide hosted database creation tools
- Provide a development platform
- Provide application management tools
- Possess capabilities to deploy applications
Common Use Cases for PaaS Software
Development teams and businesses use PaaS to accelerate application development and scale infrastructure without long-term investments in back-end build-out. Common use cases include:
- Building and deploying new applications on scalable cloud infrastructure using a pay-as-you-grow model
- Outsourcing hosting, database management, and cloud security to reduce back-end development burden
- Expanding existing applications to larger audiences without re-architecting underlying infrastructure
How PaaS Software Differs from Other Tools
PaaS serves as an alternative to building and hosting application back ends with integrated development environments (IDEs), providing hosted infrastructure alongside development tools rather than requiring teams to manage their own servers. PaaS hosted database and storage services share similarities with mobile backend-as-a-service (mBaaS) products, which provide similar capabilities specifically for mobile applications. Hybrid cloud PaaS deployments, combining public and private clouds, have grown in popularity for organizations with complex infrastructure requirements.
Insights from G2 on PaaS Software
Based on category trends on G2, scalability and the breadth of built-in development and database tools stand out as the most valued capabilities. These platforms deliver faster time-to-deployment and reduced infrastructure management overhead as primary benefits of adoption.
