What is exactly PaaS? What is Platform as a Service? It differs in comparison to IaaS and SaaS

Sep 1, 2022
What is PaaS

PaaS (Platform as a Service) is a blend of servers, storage and networking infrastructure that provides all the required software to facilitate the development of apps. When you use PaaS it is not necessary to buy hardware that is on premises or worry about setting up an infrastructure virtual to the applications you want to run.

PaaS offers all the tools you need to realize the goals you have set and even more.

Let's explore what PaaS means, some of the actual PaaS examples, market share of leading PaaS firms, and more.

What is PaaS? (With Examples)

AWS Elastic Beanstalk
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Google App Engine
Google App Engine

The offerings offered by PaaS are distinct when compared to renting storage space, or even using the virtual machine. The PaaS solution serves as an already-built platform for bringing your application online.

You can rent the hardware by itself in the category of IaaS however not in the PaaS category.

Let's review of the differentiators between the two types.

What is the difference between IaaS and PaaS?

For making things more confusing, many PaaS companies also provide IaaS solutions, and vice versa.

Let's cut through the confusion by comparing certain items.

PaaS Example IaaS Examples
AWS Elastic Beanstalk AWS EC2
Google App Engine Google Compute Engine (GCE)
Microsoft Azure App Service Microsoft Azure Storage
IBM Cloud Foundry IBM Cloud Virtual Servers
DigitalOcean App Platform DigitalOcean Droplets
Heroku

This is the main difference.

A PaaS solution is one which is packaged to aid you in the creation and deployment of your app, however, an IaaS can be described as the cloud infrastructure , which is simple.

In certain instances, the companies such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft are only charging users for their services however they will not charge for using their software platforms.

What is the difference between SaaS as well as PaaS?

Salesforce dashboard
Salesforce dashboard

All you have to do is sign up then it's available for make use of. This is the basic principle behind a SaaS service.

To gain a deeper understanding of the difference, let's take a look at several more instances.

Cloud Service Type Examples
SaaS Google Workspace, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, IBM Watson Assistant, Salesforce, Workday, Slack
PaaS AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure App Service, Heroku, IBM Cloud Foundry

An SaaS service can be put to use the second you sign up. As an example, when you sign up with Google Docs, you can begin creating, saving as well as sharing your documents.

But Google App Engine or IBM Cloud Foundry don't provide complete solutions to problems in business. Instead, they're cloud-based platforms that allow you to create custom apps.

PaaS Market size and share and leading Vendors

The PaaS market's projected size and how it's measured to other cloud providers are based on the provider.

As an example, as per Gartner Gartner, PaaS will be outnumbered by IaaS in 2021. $27.5 billion in revenues versus. $61.9 billion in sales.

Public cloud market share (Source: Gartner)
Public cloud market share (Source: Gartner)

That would be a result of the IaaS market has nearly doubled the market of PaaS. IaaS represents a substantial part of the cloud services market, while PaaS is considered to be a niche product by comparison.

However, other studies show another image.

Based on International Data Corporation (IDC) statistics, 2019 revenues decreased significantly from the past and PaaS significantly higher in the range of $35.9 billion as opposed to $49 billion.

Cloud services market share (Source: Gartner)
Worldwide public cloud services market growth (Source: Gartner)

Both have grown with similar rates with 38.4 percentage YoY growth for IaaS and 38.8 percent rise in PaaS.

While PaaS isn't close to closing the gap, it's certainly not trailing also.

This could be the reason SaaS and PaaS are considerably larger on their table.

Top Vendors and Market Part

Since 2016, cloud analysts, industry experts, research companies along with experts have moved away from separate reporting to covering the cloud industry comprising IaaS as well as PaaS all.

Public-Cloud-Services-Market-Share-2019-IDC
Public Cloud Services Market Share for 2019 (Source: IDC)

One of the main reasons for this is that most of the major players are similar across both categories.

The names that are well-known include for Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM regardless of whether you're looking at PaaS or IaaS markets.

Another reason is the fact that market experts tend to blend IaaS as well as PaaS services together, so it's hard to distinguish from the profits.

PaaS and IaaS revenue share (Source: Statista)
PaaS in addition to IaaS revenues part (Source: Statista)

Together, they account for over 54 per cent of all IaaS and PaaS revenue around the world.

Following the top US service providers, you can find Alibaba from China with 4.4%, Alibaba which has 4.4 percent as well as NTT Data in Japan. NTT Data at 2.8 percent percent of global revenue.

The industry is led by the US by the amount of use and ongoing innovation.

AWS is the leading IaaS and PaaS service provider, and is expected to continue increasing its growth rate rapidly through 2021.

What kind of services does PaaS offer?

Although the main use-case of PaaS is for the development of web applications, other cloud-based services are included.

Let's take a look more closely.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

A cloud-hosted , hosted database that you install manually in an actual computer is an implementation of IaaS.

An example of them being the Azure SQL Database feature, which offers a fully managed database that updates automatically and also scalability intelligence-driven threat protection, as well as AI-powered search.

Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database

Cloud-based services which fall into this category can also be called DBaaS which is a subcategory in PaaS.

Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms

Mobile Services (APIs)

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Additionally, they use automated SMS messages on a large size.

Through SMS APIs, businesses can integrate automated messages into their applications.

As an example, they could send customers texts to:

  • Inform them about scheduled phone calls or scheduled meetings.
  • Promote a new related product or service.

They are often classified independently in the form of Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) or a PaaS subcategory.

Push Notification APIs

As SMS text messages are, with the exception of mobile and browser push notifications. These APIs provide the basis for push notifications.

They can be used to:

  • Inform customers to download the most current version of your app.
  • Advertise a relevant limited-time promotion.

Machine Learning

If you truly want to take advantage of the data you have It's not enough to keep it on the cloud. Data is being stored, but in a different location.

There is a need for algorithms to sort through your information and uncover valuable insights, as well as steps to take.

IBM Watson Studio
IBM Watson Studio

Like, IBM Watson Studio lets you automate AI lifecycle management, and launch and test models with one mouse click as well as many other.

It's a fantastic PaaS environment to make use of huge amounts of amounts of data.

Search and AI-powered suggestions are both part of the PaaS tools for development that the major four providers.

Hadoop, Spark, and Other Data Processing Frameworks

Apache Hadoop is an open-source software framework that lets you to handle large data sets through large virtual clusters.

  • Google offers Hadoop as an integrated part in its Dataproc Big Data Processing service.
  • Microsoft provides Hadoop as part of their HDInsight Data Processing service.
  • IBM provides Hadoop as part of BigInsights.
  • AWS provides Hadoop as well as Spark in the context of EMR.

The top companies offer custom data lake and other solutions for data processing that complement Hadoop.

The majority of popular cloud services are PaaS. Take a look at the findings of a 2020 study on cloud public services.

The most popular cloud service (Source: Flexera)
Cloud service has the most popularity (Source: Flexera)

Cloud-based relational databases are the most well-known types of databases that have an overwhelming majority of businesses employing the databases, 17 percent trying them out with the databases in the past, and 10% intending to make use of these databases.

Thirdly, you can use data warehouses. 53 percent of businesses currently employ this approach to process and analysis of huge volumes of data.

Google Cloud BigQuery is an illustration of this kind of PaaS product.

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The four leading PaaS providers What features can they Provide?

In the past, we've talked about cloud-based public services there are four distinct market top providers.

However, how do they compare to the other with regard to PaaS service?

In the following section, we'll take closer to each of the top cloud provider, and the services they have to offer.

AWS

AWS is the first cloud computing service provider. It created the first cloud computing revolution when it launched its very first EC2 product in 2006.

Head start established their status as the undisputed market leader, and it's currently the biggest cloud service firm in the world.

But, for PaaS in particular, what does it bring to the game?

An overview of Amazon's overview of services will reveal everything you need to know about.

AWS services overview
AWS Services Overview

Most of the mentioned instances actually are using an PaaS service. We'll look at exactly the features AWS offers regarding PaaS solutions.

PaaS Service AWS
App Deployment Amazon Elastic Beanstalk
Big Data Processing Amazon EMR
Data Warehousing Amazon Redshift
DBaaS Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS
Notifications (SMS Notifications via Email (SMS and Email) Amazon SNS
Machine Learning Amazon SageMaker

The days where AWS provided only computing power as well as virtual machines on rent are over.

There are now custom solutions to meet all the requirements of every significant PaaS software and service, which covers everything from app deployment huge data DBaaS along with machine learning.

If you're looking for an incredibly flexible PaaS service, you won't choose the least knowledgeable expert.

IBM Cloud

What's the story behind IBM Cloud? As an early pioneer in the field of computing, IBM has invested lots of time and resources in the development of its cloud-based service suite.

IBM initially launched its PaaS services under the brand name IBM Bluemix in the year 2014.

In 2017, IBM dropped the Bluemix brand and grouped the company's PaaS and IaaS Cloud services, as well as other cloud offerings, which are privately owned by IBM Cloud. IBM Cloud umbrella.

With an array of commercial clients IBM Cloud has quickly grown to be among the most reputable PaaS service providers following its introduction in 2011.

And that shows in its services:

IBM Cloud products overview
IBM Cloud products overview

What is the best way to make IBM stack up in the PaaS department?

PaaS Service IBM Cloud
App Deployment IBM Cloud Foundry
Big Data Processing IBM BigInsights
Data Warehousing IBM DB2
DBaaS IBM Cloud Databases (Redis, PostgreSQL, etc.)
Notifications (SMS Notifications (Email, SMS Notifications (SMS Notifications via Email, SMS) IBM Push Notifications or SMS (through the third-party service providers)
Machine Learning IBM Watson Studio, IBM Watson

IBM Cloud covers essential PaaS applications like application deployment Big Data Processing and data warehouse.

In terms of notifications, IBM does not offer the complete solution as of at this time. It is possible to utilize third-party service suppliers like Twilio to integrate SMS in the workflow of your application.

and IBM has long been on the frontier of machine learning as well as AI. IBM Deep Blue became the first AI to beat the world champion at the game of chess in 1997.

IBM Watson Studio IBM Watson Studio makes it easy to use Watson AI to work. Watson AI to work, helping you to understand the data you have.

Google Cloud

Google also lets you rent the platform and infrastructure that allow you to process millions of visitors each month.

The company launched in 2008 and Google Cloud was the second big player to join the market. The extensive range of services it offers illustrates its position as one of the leading players in the industry.

Google Cloud products overview
Google Cloud products overview

In the case of PasS-specific items, that's exactly similar.

PaaS Service Google Cloud
App Deployment Google App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine
Big Data Processing Google Dataproc
Data Warehousing Google BigQuery
DBaaS Google BigTable, Google Cloud SQL, etc.
Notifications (SMS or Email Push, SMS) Firebase Cloud Messaging (Push and in-App messages)
Machine Learning Google AI Platform

For app deployment and development, Google offers a wide variety of apps, tools and services, including Kubernetes Engine as well as Google App Engine. Google App Engine and Kubernetes Engine.

For traditional databases and warehouses, Google also offers several alternatives, including BigTable, Google Cloud SQL and more.

With Firebase Cloud Messaging it's possible to schedule and send push notifications and messages in app however, not SMS.

Google AI platform offers a user-friendly interface to create as well as maintain and release new machine-learning models as fast as is possible.

The platform is complete and suitable for your PaaS requirements.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft isn't only the one responsible for operating systems that are on many laptops and desktops on the world.

Azure Cloud Platform Azure cloud platform provides various services ranging that range from AI as well as machine-learning to analytical tools and development tools for processing data, and many more.

Azure products overview
A brief overview of Azure's offerings

In contrast, at the level of the platform Microsoft is also covered.

PaaS Service Microsoft Azure
App Deployment Azure App Service
Big Data Processing Azure Databricks
Data Warehousing Azure SQL Data Warehouse
DBaaS Azure SQL Database
Notifications (SMS or Email Push SMS) Azure Notification Hubs (Push), Azure Communication Services (SMS, Voice)
Machine Learning Azure Machine Learning

It is possible to store and process information using the various solutions based on SQL including a data warehouse, or a database with a smaller scale. It is possible to make use of Azure Machine Learning to create and implement models that understand the data you have.

Azure can also integrate automatic push notifications and SMS messages into the mobile app.

Summary

PaaS isn't only about providing you the resources and computing capabilities you need to collect, share, and implement information more effectively across your business. The service also provides an infrastructure to allow you to access the data in real-time and implement internal or external software.

If you have questions about , or have had an experience regarding PaaS products or services, please contact us using the comment section!

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