Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing service designed to help organizations build and deploy software applications on scalable infrastructure. Software development for web-hosted applications is the most popular PaaS use case, but it can also enable flexible data management, storage, and more.
In a PaaS environment, cloud providers put computing, storage, memory, and other resources in a unified package and provide them to organizations as a consolidated service. By providing organizations with scalable, virtual infrastructure, PaaS helps developers focus their efforts more effectively. Instead of spending time, money, and resources building an application development environment from scratch, the team can leverage a ready-made environment directly through the cloud.
PaaS puts all the tools software developers need to create web applications in a single service. Instead of purchasing licenses for different tools to build, test, deploy, manage, and update web applications, PaaS provides a single solution for the entire workflow.
This allows the development team to spend more time creating and deploying web applications, while reducing the amount of time spent managing infrastructure. Like other cloud-delivered services, it enables scalability without requiring organizations to make large capital expenditures and hire in-house IT specialists.
As a cloud-based solution for developing and testing applications, the PaaS market includes many of the industry’s most recognizable names. Many different PaaS solutions exist, with support for different environments and programming languages.
PaaS solutions come with pre-coded application components you can immediately provision and start using. Giving your development team pre-configured workflows, directory services, and security features significantly reduces the amount of time spent coding new applications.
Without PaaS, developers and software engineers must purchase and deploy new tools for every capability they need. Training and education is often required on top of new licensing. PaaS components can provide these capabilities as integrated services that don’t require you to add new staff or upskill existing team members.
PaaS is especially popular with development teams that need to support multiple operating systems and devices. Some PaaS solutions include built-in support for cross-platform app development, making it much easier to ensure compatibility across different environments.
PaaS puts all the capabilities an organization needs to support the web application lifecycle in a single solution. Instead of integrating one solution for building apps, another for testing, and yet another for deploying them, you can consolidate these solutions into a single platform, delivered as a service.
Public PaaS solutions can unlock significant cost savings for organizations that rely on cutting-edge development software and analytics tools. Instead of purchasing licenses for these tools outright, your organization can subscribe to them on a continuous basis and pay a predictable monthly fee.
Since your PaaS infrastructure is managed by a cloud provider, it has an incentive to keep you invested in its solution long-term. If you decide to migrate your development workload to another platform in the future, you may find the process is more complicated and difficult than it should be.
Since your cloud provider offers a ready-made development platform for your team to use, you have less control over the way that platform works. Your PaaS partner may offer some degree of customization, but it will be much less than what you would get building a development platform on your own.
Not all PaaS solutions offer the same degree of connectivity and integration with existing tool sets. You may find that some parts of your organization’s tech stack don’t work well with certain PaaS solutions. Some organizations address this issue by deploying multiple PaaS at once or merging them together, but it can be a complex and time-consuming task.
Cloud infrastructure operates according to the shared responsibility model. That means that your cloud provider guarantees the security of the cloud, while you remain responsible for securing what you do with the cloud. Building apps on PaaS may require additional security resources from your development team.
Your cloud hosting provider takes responsibility for managing your PaaS deployment, and expects to be compensated for their work. Some organizations prefer to start with IaaS deployments and build their own platform to reduce operating costs. This is especially true for enterprise organizations with advanced IT capabilities.
PaaS is one kind of cloud computing service model. It is often compared to two other popular models that operate in a similar way:
PaaS enables small businesses and growing organizations to leverage computing and development resources normally reserved for large enterprises. This levels the playing field between large enterprises and smaller organizations, allowing for greater innovation and growth.
However, as the cloud computing service market grows more crowded, it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to differentiate themselves. Standing out from the competition is difficult when many different providers offer similar services.
PaaS can dramatically accelerate the application development lifecycle and improve the efficiency of development workflows. However, no two organizations are alike. The ideal solution for your development team may be different than what a competing organization needs, even if your applications and requirements are similar.
Before implementing a PaaS solution in your environment, take time to consider how it will interact with your existing workflows and architecture. Keep in mind that your application development needs may change over time.
For example, if you plan on expanding application usage across multiple operating systems, you may need a PaaS designed to support easy containerization. Alternatively, you could prioritize PaaS solutions that directly support the operating systems you plan on using.
Similarly, the ability to reliably conduct service health monitoring is a valuable asset in application development. This feature should scale as needed to ensure proper functionality even as your organization expands over time.
Risks like vendor lock-in and decreased security visibility should be taken into consideration early in the procurement process. Many IT leaders believe that implementing PaaS means compromising on these risks, but does not always have to be the case.
Data observability solutions can help reduce the risk of vendor lock-in by giving you control over how your data flows throughout the IT environment. This lets you avoid the scenario where you entrust data to a PaaS provider, only to find out that you can’t remove your data easily from their systems.
Application development environments must be secured against vulnerabilities and cybersecurity risks. This is true whether your organization builds applications in-house or uses a PaaS solution for the purpose.
Since PaaS solutions are hosted on cloud infrastructure, their security risk profile is similar to other cloud computing deployments in many ways. However, since these platforms are designed for application development, security leaders must also make sure they implement robust application security workflows.
PaaS is resistant to threats that target cloud infrastructure, but may be vulnerable to platform and application-level threats. PaaS security best practices include encrypting data, managing identity and access controls, and deploying cloud security solutions like CWS and CSPM.
Some of the challenges that security leaders face with PaaS include:
Bitdefender can help you secure cloud-hosted application development workflows according to PaaS security best practices. Leveraging the right combination of technologies can helps your organization maintain visibility and control over its PaaS deployment.
Here are some of the technologies you can use to secure PaaS against risk:
PaaS expands cloud-enabled scalability and flexibility to the software development environment. This allows organizations to create and manage custom applications on cloud infrastructure, without having to build the entire development environment from scratch.
Multitenancy is when cloud providers share the same computing resources with multiple customers. Multitenant architecture is fundamental to public cloud computing service models like PaaS.
PaaS helps organizations build customized applications, which can then deliver services through cloud infrastructure using an API. Cloud APIs send and receive requests between different assets and services, which can include PaaS solutions. Organizations that invest heavily in PaaS-enabled workflows may need to invest in cloud API security and management as well.