PaaS, accelerating the digital transformation of businesses

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is catalyzing the digital transformation of enterprises. Its ability to simplify and accelerate application development is winning over many organizations. It gives them the benefits of a complete application platform in the cloud, without the hassle of managing it. PaaS thus becomes a dynamic agent in the digital transition. Its specialized variants (iPaaS, dbPaaS) further extend its potential.

What is PaaS?

Platform as a Service (PaaS) refers to an application solution hosted entirely in the cloud. In practice, a PaaS provider offers its customers a pre-configured platform, integrating all the tools required for application development and deployment.

This includes development environments (IDEs), databases, web servers, content management systems and programming interfaces (APIs). The customer doesn’t have to worry about the technical contingencies of the cloud, as the service provider takes care of them as part of a managed service approach.

iPaaS, a specialized variant of PaaS

There’s a variant of PaaS called iPaaS, for “integration Platform as a Service”. As its name suggests, iPaaS focuses on application integration, whereas PaaS covers the entire software lifecycle.

An iPaaS provides all the connectors needed to enable heterogeneous SaaS applications or diversified data sources to communicate with each other. It enables different services to be orchestrated into a coherent application chain, based on a business logic.

It’s easy to see why iPaaS complements other cloud computing segments:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) offers raw infrastructure resources to host applications. It’s up to the customer to configure them.
• PaaS, as we have seen, adds a pre-configured software platform for developing and launching applications, with no administration effort.
• SaaS (Software as a Service) corresponds to ready-to-use web applications for end-users.

iPaaS, then, focuses on linking SaaS services and heterogeneous data sources within business workflows.

The advantages and disadvantages of PaaS

The advantages of PaaS

The PaaS model offers many advantages, making it an attractive outsourcing option for businesses:

• Simplification of application infrastructure: this model relieves companies of the need to install and update databases, web servers, content management systems and other application infrastructure components. These are all made available and managed by the PaaS provider within its platform.
• Optimized development operations: application development is carried out on complete, ready-to-use environments, without complex configuration. The PaaS provider also automates recurring tasks such as version upgrades. In addition, it provides integrated collaboration tools to ensure efficient coordination between developers.
• Faster time-to-market: once developed, applications can be rapidly deployed thanks to the pre-configured PaaS platform. Subsequently, their capacity to absorb a growing user load is easily ensured by automatic resource allocation.
• Lower infrastructure management costs: by outsourcing application infrastructure to the PaaS provider’s platform, companies pay only for the technical resources actually consumed, on a much more cost-effective on-demand model.

The limits of PaaS

PaaS does, however, have a number of limitations that should be borne in mind:

• Technological dependence on the provider: PaaS customers are obliged to use the programming languages and frameworks supported by the platform, resulting in a lack of flexibility and difficulties in migrating to another PaaS.
• Application architecture lock-in: PaaS does not allow customers to customize or fine-tune the configuration of the underlying technology stack. This can make it difficult to address specific business needs.
• Security and compliance issues: security breaches or regulatory compliance issues linked to hosted data may be overlooked by the PaaS provider (data sovereignty issues, in particular).

Reduced operational control: with PaaS, customers lose control over technical parameters, which are managed entirely by the provider. They are therefore dependent on the supplier’s ability to deliver the expected quality of service and support.

When should you opt for a PaaS solution?

The PaaS model can be used for a wide range of business applications.

First and foremost, PaaS can be used to manage the company’s master data (Master Data Management). In this sense, the platform centralizes and standardizes critical business information – customer, product, financial – providing a single point of truth for transactions and business intelligence analysis.

Secondly, the model is ideally suited to unified communications projects. PaaS enables instant messaging, VoIP and videoconferencing functionalities to be integrated directly into business applications. This facilitated approach accelerates the digitization of business interactions.

Managed databases accessible via PaaS also free technical teams from time-consuming administration tasks. Provisioning and maintenance are fully automated, with optimized performance for the cloud.

In addition, business process management (BPM) takes full advantage of the PaaS approach. BPM engines, business rules, dashboards and other components are provided on a turnkey basis, with no integration or operational effort required.

Predictive analysis and business intelligence also benefit from the advanced functionalities of massive data processing. Valuable strategic insights are generated to improve business competitiveness.

Finally, the development and management of APIs and microservices benefit fully from PaaS; teams have a unified environment for building, deploying, administering and securing programming interfaces and back-end services.

How to switch to a PaaS solution?

Adopting the PaaS model requires a real transformation in the way your technical teams operate. To make this change a success, you need to support them.

Firstly, in-depth technical training is essential to ensure competence in the new tools and development environments.

Secondly, change coaching will help overcome any reluctance to accept the loss of control induced by PaaS. Resistance is natural, since it challenges established operating patterns. A plan to communicate and motivate teams will be decisive here.

Next, application governance will have to be reviewed to address the new technological and regulatory risks of the cloud: data security, sector compliance, reversibility… Indicators and processes will have to be thoroughly revised to align with the new PaaS operating model.

Well managed, this change nevertheless offers exciting new prospects for employees. Freed from the repetitive tasks of technical management, they can step up their skills on more strategic subjects for the entity in question.

Conclusion

In essence, adopting PaaS accelerates companies’ move towards agility. Outsourcing infrastructure frees up teams to innovate, and optimizes development cycles. Admittedly, challenges remain, which is why a gradual migration to PaaS is recommended for mission-critical systems. Nevertheless, in the long term, PaaS will become a must for anyone wishing to maintain their digital competitiveness.