One model for many developing companies, particularly those who are developing new software is Paas. Paas or Platform as a Service is somewhere in between Iaas and Saas services because while it is not as restrictive as Saas it also is not as flexible as Iaas. Paas lets the customer scale their operations according to their growth, and helps with development by having a consistent platform for a group of developers.
One use for Paas is for developing programs from multiple remote locations, because its services streamline the programing side. By standardizing the available products or tricks in the bag, multiple people can remotely add to the programs being designed by the engineers without stepping on each others toes. It is often used by companies that offer specialized services to other companies. A company offering these services will often rent a cloud platform that gives them tools to then design programs for other companies to use. The service is the platform like a Windows or Mac platform, except not as simple and customized by the Cloud providers themselves.
Paas is a convenient tool for developers and others who wish to coordinate their projects onto interpretable software. A developer of some sort often needs to be working in the same language as their coworkers, to be able to integrate their particular designs with each other. And for many companies that have developers working remotely this helps keep their work on the same level. Paas works for other types of structures as well, a company that provides a software service to other companies may use Paas system to supplement their own servers. The cloud is often used as a way for start-ups to avoid many of the costs associated with owning a server. Paas is often a ‘pay as you go’ platform, meaning you can pay as your need arises. If you need to rent more space you can pay according to your needs. This helps young start-ups get costs associated with initial investments down. Though by no means is a Paas provider limited to a start-up as their customer base. A more developed company might want to use a Paas system to streamline operations.
Though the customer base for Paas is generally designers who offer applications for consumption, the advantage to using a platform specific Cloud service is that the customer can write all the code, and not be tied down to creating up the entire infrastructure of Iaas. Saas services just wouldn’t work for developers. The platform provided by the cloud services frees the developers up to work on more necessary tasks.
Paas customers can be varied, not limited to software developers alone. A Paas provider might simplify their platform to provide more basic services that allow a company to have many built-in features. While Saas and Iaas have elements of this, Paas is more variable in what it offers from provider to provider. The Paas system is not as simple as a Saas system or an Iaas system. The Iaas systems tend to be more hardware oriented, where the platform and software are already developed; in this way it is generally utilized by companies that already have a product to push out. The Paas while solely for developing companies enables a developer to utilize the Cloud offering at all ends of their development process.
Paas in this way really enables new ideas and new developments in the tech world. Essentially keeping an application or web developer set from the beginning to the end. Though as the company grows they may want to consider hosting their own servers or depending on their needs renting out an Iaas host down the road. But having the availability of the Paas enables young companies to begin and sell their products by saving them from hardware and various software development tools needed to really make excellent products.