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Exploring the Platform

TECHBLOCKS WHITEPAPER Platform as a Service enables developers to create innovative applications, without operational overhead around configuration, deployment, and management. AS A SERVICE

APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS APPLICATIONS PLATFORM AS A SERVICE PLATFORM PLATFORM PLATFORM

INFRASTRUCTURE INFRASTRUCTURE INFRASTRUCTURE INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE

Exploring the Platform As Gartner says, by 2020 a Corporate ‘No-’ Policy will be as as a Service rare as a ‘no-’ policy is today! The Cloud is truly omnipotent in IaaS PaaS SaaS Real World Examples the field of Technology. However, Cloud is a fairly broad CLOUD VENDOR MANAGES CLOUD VENDOR MANAGES CLOUD VENDOR MANAGES Benefits of the PaaS INFRASTUCTURE. INFRASTUCTURE AND PLATFORM. INFRASTUCTURE, PLATFORM Approach concept that covers a large range of services. Organizations looking YOU MANAGE PLATFORM AND APPS YOU MANAGE APPS AND APPS. to truly benefit from the myriad of advantages that the Cloud offers, Notable Challenges must first understand the Cloud and its various components or the The Keys to PaaS Success ‘Cloud Stack’ as it is termed. The stack consists of Measuring Successes and Moving forward with PaaS three distinct layers which are , Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service. This study looks closely at the ‘Middleman’ in the Cloud Computing • SaaS applications are software hosted in the cloud designed for end- Stack: Platform as a service (PaaS). PaaS is a cloud computing model users, delivered over the web delivering applications over the Internet, where a cloud provider manages both infrastructure and software for a client as a service. Such • PaaS is the platform or set of tools and services to enable users to a model allows companies to easily run and manage applications without code, create and deploy applications needing to create the related physical infrastructure that is required to • IaaS is the infrastructure, or the hardware and software that powers develop the application. the cloud – servers, storage, networks, operating systems For CIOs and top IT managers, moving to a PaaS model brings significant benefits as well as a few notable challenges. Careful Cloud Enterprise consideration and selection of the right PaaS vendor and smart integrations with other services can produce robust ROI with PaaS, providing companies with an advantage as they can offer applications SaaS Applications (SAP, Oracle BS) and services faster than competitors.

PaaS (DB, ESB, App Srvr)

Iaas / Hardware / OS

2 TechBlocks Whitepaper | Exploring the Platform as a Service

Real World Examples

PaaS represents a virtual rendering of the application infrastructure including all of the , rules, and business process systems that work in concert to help developers write business applications. With SmartCentres worked with PaaS, the cloud provider handles the installation and operation of this TechBlocks to define the business infrastructure, so the customer can simply focus on the code and core model and define the solution

Exploring the Platform purpose of the application. Consider some real-world examples of required to support their needs. as a Service customer and employee-facing PaaS solutions in action: TechBlocks built the IT solution Real World Examples for their new service offering Benefits of the PaaS • New employee onboarding: Developers building applications that will Penguin Pickup, leveraging the Approach run the various processes a new staff member will need to operate Azure Cloud to host a Notable Challenges successfully in the organization. responsive mobile website and The Keys to PaaS Success SQL database. Measuring Successes and • Asset management: A transportation company building applications Moving forward with PaaS to manage physical assets more efficiently, with access available to remote workers.

• Cost reduction: A company with many legacy applications wanting Potentia decided to partner to reduce operational costs without changing the core function of with TechBlocks help solve the the applications. challenges that growth was causing. Using Microsoft cloud • Consolidating applications: A company that building and running solutions, they were able to applications for various customers. If these applications are built develop and deploy a customized at different times, then they might not share a common code or collaboration and office platform architecture. Moving to a PaaS platform can reduce operating costs that streamlined, digitized and while shifting applications to a reusable architecture. automated their ever-growing business processes. • Enhancing Collaboration: A company wants to rejuvenate innovation by promoting open-source environments where everyone in the company can see the code of projects and creatively contribute. Empowering employees in this manner motivates them as they can tangibly see their efforts across the company in terms of revised or improved app processes.

3 TechBlocks Whitepaper | Exploring the Platform as a Service Benefits of the PaaS also creates a more predictable environment for IT, as the OS PaaS Approach and all the middleware is controlled by the service provider. This is especially true when working with established players such as 466% Microsoft’s Azure or , as compared to using Return on The current cloud is designed for applications instead of strictly private data centers or internally managing an IaaS solution. Such an Investment architecture (the IaaS approach). According to a Total Economic Impact arrangement also gives IT complete application control without any Study from Forrester Consulting which polled Azure PaaS customers, need to sacrifice desired application functions. And PaaS solutions moving to PaaS from IaaS resulted in 466% ROI. Exploring the Platform that are running production applications often feature service level as a Service agreements (SLAs) with guaranteed uptime levels, so IT can rest The Forrester Consulting study also detailed the time IT staff spent Real World Examples assured the applications will have maximum availability. managing applications dropped nearly eighty percent after moving to Benefits of the PaaS Approach a PaaS model, allowing staff more time to focus on revenue-generating Additional benefits of PaaS include: $5.91 Notable Challenges projects instead of upgrades, patching, and related tedious tasks. Net Present The Keys to PaaS Success • Self-service platforms for reduced administration costs Value Companies that are considering a brand new application are now best Measuring Successes and • Supportive of team collaboration efforts Moving forward with PaaS served writing it as a PaaS-based application from start to finish. Such • New users are easily added to the platform a structure allows developers to increase their productivity as they do • Reduced skill requirements for application development not spend unnecessary time on setting up the environment, verifying and management development of the app, and placing it within test environments. • Remote developers can collaborate on a shared application build from around the world as they can access the PaaS through a browser 80% IT Time Saved For an example of the modern cloud-based PaaS at work, consider the Azure platform. To bring applications to market faster and with instant scale, companies are leveraging services such as the PaaS. It offers a multitude of benefits including: INNOVATION PaaS

VALUE TO BUSINESS TO VALUE • Supports a broad selection of programming languages, operating

EFFICIENCY systems, frameworks, , and devices • Pay-as-you-go • Runs on a worldwide network of datacenters so businesses can 50% TIME run applications from any location Faster Service • Integrated predictive analytics for better customer service and Deployment business insights Time to Market

4 TechBlocks Whitepaper | Exploring the Platform as a Service Notable Challenges

Despite its many benefits, the PaaS approach does pose some Here are some other risks or challenges of the PaaS model: challenges and caveats. • Locked into a vendor: Similar to other cloud computing decisions, The lack of standardization is a concern, as there is little commonality picking a PaaS vendor does come with the risk of being “locked in” Exploring the Platform as a Service between various PaaS offerings. Many cloud platforms have adopted due to the challenges in moving away from the vendor’s infrastructure

Real World Examples standards from legacy systems, but these processes can’t stand up and software. to the accelerated pace of cloud evolution. This situation causes Benefits of the PaaS Approach gaps in standardization, especially given the multitude of companies • Lack of control: The customer and cloud provider relationship is based

Notable Challenges involved in PaaS. on trust. The PaaS provider must show they can be trusted to run the

The Keys to PaaS Success application development platform without interruption. They also need Integration with in-house IT systems is a related challenge, as tricky to have business goals that align with yours, and won’t spring any Measuring Successes and Moving forward with PaaS integration processes can pull IT away from other projects, and surprises on you, by for example ceasing to support a programming successful PaaS integrations can result in IT complexity. Integrations language that is vital to your success. often benefit from the experienced guidance of IT consultants who can streamline the integration process by choosing solutions that “talk” to • Security issues: For many companies, placing information and each other and recommending changes to reduce complexity. applications in the cloud is more of a comfort issue than a true measure of risks. PaaS providers such as Microsoft take security very seriously by for example creating platforms that are for example HIPAA compliant or hold to the dozens of other international compliance standards.

• Difficulty in portability: For developers of existing SaaS applications, “The global Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) there’s a challenge in moving them over to a PaaS structure due to market is projected to reach $7.5B by which programming models were used to create the applications. 2020. Global Industry Analysts predicts that the Asia-Pacific region will lead geographic growth, attaining a CAGR of 20.9% through 2020.”

5 TechBlocks Whitepaper | Exploring the Platform as a Service The Keys to PaaS Success

Long-term successful usage of PaaS requires careful planning and the • Testing the bendability. How locked-in will you be with this selection of the right provider. It’s important to find a provider that will provider? Can you develop and deploy an application on this PaaS effectively adapt to your developer’s current and future needs, and offers and easily move to another provider? Here’s where choosing an the right programming languages and required application frameworks established player such as Azure or AWS can pay off, where you Exploring the Platform that are crucial to your business. You need to align the PaaS cloud know the platform has a strong technical and financial base. as a Service “How much, you Real World Examples platform requirements with your business goals, ensure application flexibility with public, private, hybrid, and on-premises environments, • Integration without interruption. Whether applications are new Benefits of the PaaS ask? In its latest Approach and move as much workload as possible to the cloud so staff can focus or migrated in the PaaS, they usually need to integrate with Total Economic Notable Challenges squarely on development. existing applications or data sets. You need simple yet secure

The Keys to PaaS Success integration processes. Impact Study, Here are some crucial steps to take while considering a widespread Measuring Successes and Forrester Consulting Moving forward with PaaS move to PaaS. Similar to other cloud services, there exist multiple deployment interviewed a • Conduct a cost/benefit analysis. It’s crucial to review the costs of options for PaaS solutions, including hybrid, public, and private. The number of current development for new apps within the PaaS while including the hybrid deployment option is often best, as it’s a more customized expense of migrating existing applications. Will the PaaS markedly approach where services, data, and applications are placed in either customers of Azure’s reduce deployment times compared to in-house operations? public or private cloud or remain in on-premises environments. PaaS services and Shortened development times mean lower costs. Determining where to put each of these elements is based on both concluded that the risks (the value of the application or service) and the related • Security and innovation. A faster time-to-market is worthwhile, but costs. IT management should review each scenario, by examining concluded that understand any corresponding risks to your data security plan and put the characteristics of the application in question, the various services migrating to PaaS in place the right structure to mitigate the risks. used by the application, and the specific sets of data pulled by the application. With hybrid approaches there is the need to manage both from IaaS resulted • Review providers. Check the support capabilities for developer tools, public and private PaaS, so it’s recommended to use the same tech in a 466% return on application technologies, frameworks, and the other related tech. Do base for both routes for maximum interoperability. For an example costs scale efficiently as the usage grows? of the hybrid solution in action, consider a company that places its investment.” sensitive datasets into on-premises storage, while still deploying • Consider the “long haul.” Will the PaaS provider’s ecosystem allow it related PaaS applications in a public cloud environment. to remain a market leader? You want easy integrations with third party solutions through a vibrant PaaS provider ecosystem.

6 TechBlocks Whitepaper | Exploring the Platform as a Service Measuring Successes and Moving forward with PaaS

Exploring the Platform The success of a PaaS is based on the efficiencies it brings to the When used judiciously with the right applications, a PaaS approach can as a Service company, and ultimately how those efficiencies impact personal pay enormous dividends as companies reduce the costs that come with Real World Examples productivity and customer satisfaction. Savings from a PaaS traditional app development and deployment. PaaS brings speed and Benefits of the PaaS Approach implementation are both direct, in terms of savings tied to reduced IT agility to the development process through a predictable infrastructure, costs due to streamlined development, and indirect for example through so IT can focus on customer and internal staff needs, not the technical Notable Challenges increased worker productivity and the benefit of being “first to market” details. With the explosion in mobile connectivity and remote workers, The Keys to PaaS Success with an application. the need for PaaS-based applications will only grow, making it an Measuring Successes and Moving forward with PaaS essential part of the CIO’s toolbox. In addition to direct metrics, it’s also worthwhile to consider some of the more hidden benefits of PaaS. Consider a traditional development and deployment scenario where teams of developers are under enormous pressure to create full-featured applications at a breakneck speed. This pressure can lead to mistakes, which can then cost time and money. With PaaS, these mistakes can largely be avoided because the platform itself is tried and tested, the developers can ignore the middleware and “If you have been holding off on leveraging PaaS services, focus on the application’s main capabilities. CIOs and upper management now is the time to revisit that decision. You can empower a should include these types of incidents in their cost/benefit analyses when reviewing a switch to a PaaS model. broader set of your developers leveraging PaaS services, ensure more consistent scalability, security and customers Additional performance metrics include for PaaS deployments include: satisfaction, knowing that deployment best practices are • The time required to place an application into a new lifecycle phase being used by default.” • How effective you are a reusing existing services from a pool of resources • Per-user costs to operate the application measured against its value

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