Application Platform-as-a-Service Explained
A Platform as a Service (PaaS) or application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provides a software platform to allow customers to design, deploy and operate applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.
A PaaS should support the full “Software Lifecycle” which allows cloud consumers to develop cloud services and applications (e.g. SaaS) directly on the PaaS cloud. Hence the difference between SaaS and PaaS is that SaaS only hosts completed cloud applications whereas PaaS offers a development platform that hosts both completed and in-progress cloud applications. This requires PaaS, in addition to supporting application hosting environment, to possess development infrastructure including programming environment, tools, configuration management, and so forth.
Encanvas Secure and Live (Secure&Live) is an example of an aPaaS solution designed for the enterprise.
Moving Application Platforms (aPaaS) to the Cloud
Since 2007, the enterprise computing industry has been progressively leveraging cloud computing technologies to make applications more accessible and available to user communities. The use of cloud hosting applications has made it possible for applications to serve markets and users 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
One of the challenges of porting applications to the cloud has been the risk of data loss. Data security has become an increasing concern to organizations because of their greater reliance on data to continue business operations. Additionally, the increased compliance risks of processing personally identifiable information (PII) have made organizations more concerned about the security risks of cloud-deployed applications. Nevertheless, most application platforms today are deployed on cloud computing platforms as an applications-Platform-as-a-Service (aPaaS).
Why every business needs an application Platform-as-a-Service (aPaaS)
With a general recognition that business success is increasingly derived from the ability of an enterprise to master and leverage its data value, senior management teams are increasingly exploring ways to make sense of their operational performance through data. The ability to re-use data – to harvest, cleanse, rationalize, and analyze it – has become a mission-critical need.
To deliver their customer values and orchestrate their business processes, organizations must adopt application software to provide an interface between workers and computer systems (human-to-machine-interfacing-applications) and between computers (machine-to-machine-interfacing-applications). Perhaps unsurprisingly, some processes require both human and machine interfaces.
In most organizations a gap exists between inflexible Systems of Record – used to enforce good practice in common core back-office processes such as financial management, human resources, and customer relationship management – and demand for applications from departments, users, teams, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to support the fulfillment of a business model orchestration.
The evolution of iPaaS towards Low-Code platforms
The need for greater agility in IT systems, together with the rising influence of operational departments on enterprise software buying decisions, has led to the rise in application platforms that allow non-programmers to author applications. So-called ‘Low-Code’ or ‘Codeless’ applications reduce or remove the need to see or use programming code or script in the design, deployment and operational phases of the Software Development Life-Cycle (SDLC).
The Author
Erica Tomlin is a senior consultant specializing in helping organizational leadership teams to grow by implementing enterprise software platforms that improve data visibility, process agility; and organizational learning – creating an enterprise that learns and adapts faster. She writes on subjects of change management, organizational design, rapid development applications software, and data science. She can be contacted via LinkedIn.