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2022/06/14 21:35:27

PaaS - Platform As A Service Platform as a Service

According to Forrester Research, PaaS is a way to move to the cloud, where it provides connectivity between application platforms and the cloud infrastructures on which they run. This research firm defines' platform as a service'as a' complete multi-user cloud application platform including development tools, runtime, administration and management tools, and services'. And then clarifies that PaaS 'is a combination of an application platform with managed cloud infrastructure services'.

A catalog of PaaS solutions and projects is available on TAdviser

Content

Platform as a Service (Platform as a Service), or for short PaaS , is a special model for providing cloud services, in which the customer also gets at his disposal a ready-made software environment including an operating system, middleware software, as well as development and testing tools (framework). In some cases, a database management system () is also added to this list DBMS. At the same time, the client is also offered software tools for detailed configuration of the working environment.

An integral part of PaaS is often such types of cloud services as DBaaS (Database as a Service) and MWaaS (Middleware as a Service). The first allows you to access any type of database on demand. The second, as a rule, includes an application server, as well as a set of tools for ensuring information security[1].

How is cloud architecture built?

What are the main options for building a cloud architecture? Usually they are distinguished by three: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Customers rent computing power to deploy and use virtualized instances of operating systems and software products.

Platform as a Service PaaS : The cloud provider provides access to hardware and software infrastructure - operating systems, software development and maintenance tools - in which customers build and use their own information systems.

Software as a Service SaaS : The cloud provider provides access to an application or to an entire software suite.

How are they different? We look at the picture below. The user IaaS for the duty is an "IT specialist," enterprises choose IaaS in order to consolidate their IT capacity and save on capital investments. Of course, a developer works with PaaS, an on-demand platform is needed to significantly facilitate the creation of a comfortable development environment in the enterprise. The business user only needs ready-to-use cloud applications.

As IT vendors move their products to the cloud, and enterprises shift to cloud computing for various reasons (rapid and easy deployment, direct access to resources, instant scalability, on-demand software development and testing, payment for actual use), the cloud model is expanding more widely and represents a viable alternative to in-house solutions.


Most of today's PaaS platforms are aimed primarily at satisfying the interests of developers. They allow you to create scalable web applications with lower costs than IaaS, but in return you have to sacrifice the freedom of technology choice and control over low-level components of the system. Recently, a lot of interesting events have been taking place in the PaaS segment, including the emergence of the domestic PaaS development Hivext and the announcement of the open source PaaS Cloud Foundry platform from VMware.

In the vast majority of cases, PaaS solutions are aimed at programmers whose lives they are designed to make easier. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a task that could be done on the basis of a PaaS platform, but it could not be implemented on the basis of an IaaS service such as AWS. In this context, PaaS systems at the current stage of their development can be considered as competitors to IaaS platforms. But this is not direct competition: in approximately the same respects, the Java programming language consists of popular Java-based development systems (frameworks): Spring, Struts, Tapestry, and Ruby - to Rails and other systems based on it. If writing an enterprise website in Java "from scratch" can take months of time (especially if you consider the need for testing), then tools and ready-made components from Spring or Tapestry can reduce time costs several times by launching a full-featured site in a week or even a few days.

There are tasks where low-level control and optimization are needed. There are developers who do not like to trust other people's architectural solutions. In such cases, the choice will invariably be made in favor of "pure" programming languages. However, in situations where the problem being solved is of a typical nature, there is not enough time to develop the entire system on its own, the developer is likely to make a choice in favor of a particular system.

The problem of choosing between IaaS and PaaS is very similar to the difficulty of choosing between pure programming languages ​ ​ and development systems based on them. By sacrificing a certain amount of flexibility and control inherent in IaaS, the developer in return receives in the form of PaaS a powerful tool that allows you to create scalable web applications with minimal costs, completely eliminating the concerns associated with application deployment, software and hardware compatibility and self-design of a low-level application architecture.

For exactly the same reason that the presence of development systems does not pose a fundamental threat to the existence of programming languages, the development of software of the PaaS class does not pose a significant threat to the IaaS solutions market.

Issue Number 1

Problem number 1 is data encryption. The PaaS model is initially safe, but the risk lies in insufficient system performance. The reason is that when exchanging data with PaaS providers, it is recommended to use encryption, and this requires additional processor power. However, in any solution, the transfer of'confidential user data, such as home addresses, social security numbers and records in health cards', must be carried out over an encrypted channel.

PaaS is for whom?

The Platform as a Service model is most in demand among software developers who can quickly deploy the required software environment needed to create and test a product. Customers can focus on developing their own solutions rather than spending time deploying, configuring, and supporting servers, installing operating systems, and other software.

All these tasks are assumed by the operator, and often he also provides protection for the IT infrastructure. Thus, PaaS services act as test, auxiliary or even main platforms for developers, and are also often used as platforms for e-commerce.

Advantages and disadvantages of PaaS

The advantages of PaaS include:

  • Provide a unified environment for creating software products
  • Access to the development environment of a large number of geographically remote users
  • Built-in messaging, group communication, and commenting
  • Detailed reporting on the use of software and hardware resources
  • Integration with IaaS services
  • Simplify the administration process
  • Automatically upgrade software to the latest versions
  • Reduce time to deploy development software
  • Resource Flexibility - No Service Available at Any Time
  • Access to the service is provided via Internet channels, so maximum mobility is available for customers
  • All basic data processing takes place on the operator side, which makes it possible to impose reduced requirements on user terminals
  • Data protection in the cloud, as well as all issues related to cybersecurity, are provided by the operator
  • High fault tolerance of the service
  • 24-hour technical support

The following disadvantages of PaaS are distinguished:

  • PaaS has less flexibility and provides less control over computing infrastructure compared to IaaS
  • Access to data and applications will be relatively slow, especially when compared to local systems
  • Data is delivered through public communication channels, which requires increased attention to information security issues
  • Binding to a specific PaaS operator
  • Limitation of functionality to those capabilities provided by the service operator

2022: What are the competitive advantages of using vertical clouds

How to Get Benefits from Vertical Clouds

In 2022, industry cloud solutions can enable organizations to automate manual tasks and gain competitive advantages through this. As the global economy moves from a pandemic to an endemic, more future-oriented one, many organizations are looking for opportunities to become more flexible and efficient by moving business processes to the cloud. In response, cloud giants, software vendors, and system integrators are developing a variety of cloud solutions, accelerators, and APIs that are preconfigured to support common use cases in industry verticals. These solutions are designed specifically for easy implementation and can be used to create digital differentiation.

Whichever combination of standard applications, tools, or services users use these products, the cloud becomes the nexus that connects them into powerful business process solutions. For example, a global manufacturer cars partners cloudy with service providers to create cloud-based development services connected cars for. transport industry The platform includes industry solutions, as well as services,, and internet of things machine learning analysts computing that manufacturers can use to develop connection levels for their cars. The industry health care initially used cloud processes for data management the back office.

In the United States, the use of cloud technology in medicine is legally necessary. As of early 2022, pioneering health care providers are exploring ways to use cloud models dictated by the HIPAA law to improve treatment. They meet unique vertical needs. The vertical trend of cloud computing is gaining momentum, so in 2022 there is a good time to study the possibility of introducing such technologies.

You need to start by evaluating the ecosystem of business processes to determine what processes to consider for cloud sources from external providers, as well as the pros and cons of this. As an important part of this assessment, you need to determine how well current processes support short- and long-term business strategies, and where there is room for improvement. In addition, a fast-growing list of cloud capabilities can lead to new business models and non-standard capabilities. Finally, the industry cloud trend provides a long-overdue opportunity to restructure IT. As companies begin to shift IT functions and business processes to outsourcing ones that provide no competitive advantage, they can redirect their efforts and investments to "differentiate" the systems and services that do so while creating sustainable potential for change. This assessment does not have to be some monolithic project with a clear implementation time. In fact, this can be done in small steps that increase the efficiency and efficiency of most processes along the way. At the same time, you can begin to reorient employees and resources to differentiated processes that provide a competitive advantage.

PAAs solutions will allow you to move to the cloud infrastructure, while maintaining competitive advantages from developed local solutions

From Infrastructure to Industry Verticals

The business and technology needs that drive the trend of vertical transition to the cloud are not new by 2022. Beginning in the 2000s, organizations with similar compliance, business process, or data management requirements began implementing cloud-based software. Around the same time, Chief information officer began to "raise and move" some local systems to public clouds to reduce costs and improve efficiency. In early 2022, a combined approach - sharing software that meets common needs and giving someone else the right to manage the infrastructure - continues to point to a vertical "cloud" trend. What is new is that the transition from the purchase of common functions and libraries to the digitization and availability of real industry business processes was carried out. Moreover, organizations increasingly expect cloud service providers to create "shared core" solutions that meet the common needs of different industries and ecosystems. Thus, cloud service and software providers now offer an extensive menu of industry modular business processes available through APIs that can be accessed at the touch of a button. For example, using APIs, engineers and system architects can combine targeted intelligent factory systems into a common cloud network. Against this background, it is noticeable that this trend is unfolding in the following dimensions:

  • Hyperscalers climb the stack. Three "Big Three" cloud service providers -,, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Google Cloud Platform - Microsoft Azure offer industry enclaves based on cloud computing that automate business processes unique to sectors such as healthcare,,,, and, production automotive industry retail for example. They media began by creating infrastructure-as-a-service capabilities () that IaaS eventually evolved into platforms-as-a-service (). But they PaaS didn't stop there. Hyperscalers continue to climb the technology stack, methodically automating increasingly complex processes to create industry-optimized platforms that are in some cases more functionally robust and efficient than the on-premises solutions that enterprises use. For example, some HoReCa industry enterprises use cloud-based booking and customer management systems. Similarly, the manufacturing sector is taking advantage of cloud solutions for preventive maintenance. Organizations find much more in industry clouds than products and services developed using hyperscalers. Indeed, there is a growing ecosystem of industry business opportunities from established vendors such as,,,,,, MuleSoft and Oracle Salesforce SAP ServiceNow projects with. startups open source

  • Focus on differentiation. Most likely, the company has some kind of homemade code to hold on to. It has invested time and budget in developing these capabilities, which, thanks to good planning and execution, provide a competitive advantage. It is necessary to think of them as the keys to differentiating an organization in the market. Let's say the seller spent a lot of time setting up an inventory management system in the store. Top managers (and the market) recognize inventory capabilities as best-in-class superpowers. Just because a cloud service provider can offer an inventory API doesn't mean you need to use it automatically. If personalized code contributes significantly to competitiveness. Why not keep it? Of course, you can run it in the cloud, but the important thing is that this application meets unique needs in a way that ready-made offers cannot. Before acting, it is important to assess your capabilities. The range of vertically oriented solutions available is more complex and detailed than, for example, in 2015. It is necessary to think about your existing ability to carry out the process. If the current capabilities are better than what is available ready, you need to leave your own logic. But if there is competition with "digital natives" and the process and capabilities that support it are no longer so special, it is better to consider using the industry API.

For many technology and business leaders, participating in a vertical trend will require a kind of calculation. Together, leaders must determine where a company wins the market and which technologies make those victories possible. If, for example, winning through unconventional customer service, then you need to invest heavily in these own analytical capabilities; these opportunities provide a competitive advantage and provide new opportunities for innovation and revenue generation. It is necessary to jealously guard them. On the contrary, anything that does not single out a company in the market becomes a commodity and can be provided in the form of business services by cloud computing or software providers.

When exploring the possibilities that the vertical cloud trend might offer, consider taking the following steps, some of which may be long overdue:

1. Business and IT leaders need to work together to determine where the company wins today and in the future. For these efforts to succeed, business must have a deeper understanding of the technology. Similarly, IT professionals need to understand the business strategy and the critical role that technology plays in its development. Only then will both teams be able to identify the technologies that are crucial to achieving victory.

2. You need to create a list of business processes and cloud offerings that can support them.

3. Determine which distinctive processes and assistive technologies should be kept within the company. Similarly, identify areas of business that could benefit from the emerging set of cloud-supported technology offerings.

4. You need to work with cloud service providers, software providers, and integrators to plan the next phase of your transition to the cloud.

How to implement changes in your enterprise

In times of change and rapid innovation, access to best-in-class solutions or even experimental tools gives organizations the software options they need to connect all points in their multifaceted digital transformation strategies. However, these possibilities depend on the ability to change. Consider: Clouds tailored to the needs of specific industry verticals will continually evolve as innovative solutions and services become available. To maintain a competitive advantage, organizations need to make revolutionary decisions and stay up to date with the latest industry cloud offerings. With accelerated change, the future is always fast approaching. Cloud technology can help organizations create not only opportunities for change, but also the flexibility to do so all the time. The fewer systems and processes the company has today, the less you will have to manage, upgrade and update tomorrow. Most companies are already in the cloud to one degree or another. If so, you need to treat the industry cloud trend as the next phase of cloud travel, which is a continuation of the cloud's initial ability to share resources to solve problems at an affordable price and scale. The good news is that it doesn't take much effort to fully capture the vertical trend of clouds. In fact, this can be done in small, thoughtful steps to avoid complex updates to outdated applications or revolutionary kernel modernization initiatives. And with each step, the systems will become more effective and effective.

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I believe your difference from your competitors is not the uniqueness of your operations; From 5 to 10% of your operations are unique - said Marijan Nedic Vice President, Head of Business IT Solutions, SAP
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The advent of industry clouds - the bundled solutions of common applications and configurations used in a given vertical - helps companies spend less time tuning the basic features needed to do business and more time on important areas that distinguish them from each other.

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Our goal at SAP is to create industry clouds that enable our customers to meet most needs without additional customization, easily connect to partner solutions, and manage unique differences on a consolidated platform. Whether you run a hospital, factory, car rental company or any other enterprise, there is a possibility that many of your processes and operations are almost identical to those of your competitors, "Nedich said.
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So industry predetermines much of your problem space. And most of this problematic space has already been resolved.

Any decent industry cloud will have a few outlines. First, the industry cloud should provide most of the features needed for the industry out of the box, especially standard features. Second, it should be an open platform to enable customers and partners to develop innovative solutions. The platform should simplify the connection and management of these solutions. Third, it should allow customers to increase or reduce capacity and processes in line with demand. Finally, it should provide easy access to other business and technology services. For example, all major cloud services today include standard tools out of the box. While natural language processing (NLP) is now a common tool, the question is how to integrate NLP into the business. With all these features, the industry cloud should support your wider ecosystem.

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I recently visited a manufacturing customer who uses flexible production methods to complete both large and small customer orders. This is a very profitable business, but it requires frequent reconfiguration of production lines. To optimize equipment performance, machine learning models analyze order data to determine the required machine configurations and the optimal sequence of order fulfillment. The process works excellently, but the digital team of the manufacturer took a huge effort to create all this manually - said Mariyan Nedich
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Instead, these capabilities can come from a single industry cloud. Offloading much of the construction and maintenance of these processes could give data scientists more time to develop machine learning models to help the factory respond more quickly to orders. If machine vision is combined with machine learning models, quality control teams can check a larger percentage of goods coming off the assembly line. The ability to devote more time to really important actions helps manufacturers scale their operations faster than if they were creating functionality manually. This is what distinguishes the manufacturer. With this combination of functionality, enterprises can become more flexible. When their primary operating platform is configured for the needs of a typical business in their industry, they can focus their efforts on the part of their activity that distinguishes them from others. They can get a direct digital view of their business, their network of partners, their network of suppliers, their equipment. Ultimately, it's about flexibility to develop innovations that can really make your organization unique.

Vertical Cloud Management Perspectives

  • Strategy. Cloud service and software providers are developing increasingly complex and efficient business functions as a service. With new opportunities for more complex outsourcing, executives need to understand their organization's unique value proposition. Just as ERP standardized most back-office functions, leaders must determine which subset of their business functions is distinctive. Only now the rates are higher: they are replaced not by financial or accounting divisions, but by those that form the basis of the business and influence strategic decision-making.

  • Finance. CFOs interested in budget and compliance can find dual benefits in cloud applications tailored to industry needs. Industry clouds can help companies keep up with technology and legislative changes with less effort, freeing up talent for more valuable projects. CFOs should ensure close collaboration between finance, IT, and compliance, risk, and legal departments to ensure all parties understand how to maximize the potential benefits of new cloud services.

  • Risks. Security professionals have the ability to integrate cyber risk management as new industry cloud deployments begin. Standard vendor cybersecurity components may not meet your organization's needs. As industry clouds perform more business functions, individualized cloud security becomes increasingly important. CRO and IT can make cybersecurity a hallmark of an organization's cloud stack rather than a secondary task. Building cyber defenses in the early stages, especially for consumer-facing organizations, may be less costly in the long run.

Vertical Cloud Solutions Command Building Techniques

Even when "buy" turns into "assemble," there is a need for another type of "build." Here we should not talk about the armies of developers working on many years of projects to create giant user systems. Rather, you need to think about modern software development in small groups working with cloud services, platforms, and tools for rapid integration and deployment. A big part of this new equation is that full-stack teams work together on a set of well-defined outcomes. Leading organizations use POD teams, or "two-box pizza teams," in which cloud engineers, UX designers, data scientists, quality assurance specialists and product managers blur the lines between disciplines by working together. Team members grow and learn from whatever is required in the current sprint. It is important to note that teams are collectively focused on solving business problems and forming a roadmap for what they are working on.

The other key is empowerment. Modern engineers expect autonomy from vectors set from above (being able to work on what they believe in); self-selection of tools (including hardware, platforms, open source libraries); personal lens (dress code, operating mode, remote organization of work).

When tech leaders from traditional organizations visit high-tech startups, they often learn the wrong lesson. The reason why teams of engineers in digital companies often thrive is not about table football, filled refrigerators or silly privileges. That's because these young companies value engineering as a core creative discipline. Moreover, they respect engineers and empower them to succeed. Of course, restrictions and recommendations are still necessary, especially in the areas of security, compliance and legal protection of IP. But they are aimed at the broader context of elevating modern engineering as a key part of the organization's strategy and future culture.

2020: PaaS as a separate type of cloud service has mostly outlived its usefulness

In the mid-2000s, platform-as-a-service (PaaS) essentially revolutionized cloud computing. PaaS vendors like Heroku have demonstrated to the business the benefits of developing and deploying applications in the cloud. PaaS was the impetus for the introduction of other types of cloud services, including IaaS and SaaS. However, today we can say that PaaS as a separate type of cloud services has mostly outlived its usefulness. Independent PaaS platforms were replaced by PaaS-like services that are integrated with the largest public cloud services, primarily AWS and Azure. The latter do not offer traditional PaaS - these are rather different sets of application development and deployment tools that are included in their other services[2]

The first comments of experts that PaaS and IaaS merge together were made back in 2011. As practice shows, the period of transformation of these services is at the final stage. However, this does not mean that the basic functionality of PaaS is no longer in demand, since the cloud application delivery pipelines continue to be an integral part of the development strategies of many organizations. PaaS is simply no longer needed as a separate cloud service. The companies that use it in its purest form look like relics from the past.

2012: Frost & Sullivan: PaaS Top 10 Trends in the Next Five Years

Frost & Sullivan, an IT research and consulting firm, predicted in the fall of 2012 that the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) market would be a new stage of intense competition for cloud innovators, as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) services were already widespread. Since the software available in the clouds is mainly standard, enterprises strive to use PaaS, since only here the features of each specific service provider can manifest themselves.

For reference: PaaS is a category of cloud services that provide enterprises with a computing platform and a set of solutions as services. Along with SaaS and IaaS, this is a rapidly gaining popularity model of cloud services. In accordance with it, the PaaS client develops software using the provider's tools and libraries. The client manages the deployment and configuration of the software. The provider provides networks, servers and storage systems. PaaS enables you to deploy applications without the cost and complexity of purchasing and managing the necessary hardware and software. Various types of PaaS are offered, including an environment for hosting, developing, testing and deploying applications, as well as various integrated services that provide scaling, maintenance and version control.
  • The increase in computational load will contribute to the spread of PaaS. Neither tasks nor managing them become easier. Growing workloads will require IT to reduce costs and increase productivity. Cloud technology in the form of PaaS provides the flexibility, management, and efficiency IT managers and CIOs need to achieve performance objectives.
  • IaaS providers will seek to move into the PaaS provider category. Market-leading IaaS technology will eventually become a widely used way to provide infrastructure. Possible winners of the race for ubiquitous use of IaaS are Amazon, Rackspace, HPCS, OpenStack, CloudStack, Dell vCloud, IBM SmartCloud, Eucalyptus and Azure. To stand out from the competition, IaaS leaders will begin to integrate intermediate layer technology into their products. Otherwise, PaaS providers will add another layer of cloud technology to their offerings and will be able to ignore those who specialize in IaaS.
  • Public services will have to cede the corporate market to private PaaS. Big business needs to move to the clouds. But reliability and security problems, the limitations of PaaS, which are the same for all public services, will push the corporate market to alternative private PaaS. Enterprises will retain clouds on their own sites and will apply intermediate-level private PaaS services, and will eventually strive to create hybrid clouds.
  • Open source PaaS platforms are set to blossom. As the evolution of workloads revolutionizes cloud architecture, there will be a growing need for highly adaptable cloud environments. Large businesses will need mid-tier services as the basis for cloud building, and enterprise developers and CIOs will be looking to expand the use of open source PaaS-based IT.
  • Patented PaaS will begin to look like open source solutions. Enterprise customers need the flexibility of open solutions and the security of commercial (and related SLAs). Patented PaaS will become more extensible and will support even more programming languages, development environments, and APIs. Development and current operations managers will be able to connect to executive environments, add-ins, other provider services, or database clusters, depending on what is required to create the configuration they need.
  • Interoperability of different PaaS? More like a PaaS war. The PaaS market will turn into a place of squabbles. If anything, the marketing hype will become less civilised. Intermediate layer service providers will try to stand out and seek more specialization ('PaaS for sporting goods stores with fewer than 50 virtual machines'), accompanying this with increasingly recklessly aggressive marketing plan statements (think political campaign rhetoric).
  • Orchestration and configuration management will merge with PaaS. To survive, intermediate layer PaaS service providers, like IaaS providers, will have to adapt. PaaS technologies - both open and proprietary - will become more extensible and will include orchestration and configuration management tools such as Chef, Puppet and Juju.
  • Thanks to PaaS, hybrid clouds will prevail in cloud wars. Soon, developers and enterprises will realize the value of clouds. New approaches will force large cloud architectures to impose exorbitant requirements by today's standards ('I want 10 thousand virtual machines for a period of 10 hours'). Simple public or private models simply will not be able to meet such requirements. Hybrid models (although they will take two years to distribute) will create new value for enterprises. You can foresee an explosive increase in resources without any difficulty and a sharp acceleration of the life cycle of tasks. This will happen calmly, even imperceptibly, thanks to PaaS interlayer management technologies. PaaS businesses will give what they need. End users will not care if they use public or private clouds. They don't need to know that, and it won't matter as' hybridization'will start to be used across the board.

2011: Gartner Forecast

Analysts Gartner believe that the global PaaS (platform-as-a-service) market will grow in 2011 to $707 million, and next year a real struggle will begin for leadership in the PaaS market and in its key segments between large software suppliers for enterprises, as well as cloud service developers. The segment will develop dynamically in the coming years and will reach $1.8 billion in 2015. Among the three options for cloud services, PaaS is still the least developed.

According to Gartner analysts, PaaS can expand its presence in the market for integration of applications and intermediate layer software. The vast majority of PaaS service users are interested in choosing providers that provide complete and integrated feature packages, but so far only a few service providers have such offers available.

All leading software vendors, as well as major cloud professionals, will present proposals for a new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) this year. This makes 2011 the year of PaaS, concludes Gartner. Leading manufacturers are expected to introduce new or greatly expanded offerings for the PaaS service and cloud-enabled products of this infrastructure.

Yefim Natis, vice president and renowned analyst at Gartner, said: "By the end of 2011, the leadership contest at PaaS and its key segments will have consumed the software industry. The early consolidation of PaaS specialty offerings into kits and kits will also be evident. New suppliers will enter the market through acquisitions or internal development. Users will face a wave of innovation and advertising hype. It will be more difficult to identify relevant information, standards or clearly victorious vendors. "

Gartner believes that the introduction of PaaS in most medium and large organizations over the next five years will not lead to a massive transition to cloud computing. Instead, PaaS will extend the infrastructure application models used to hybrid computing models, where the enterprise application infrastructure and PaaS infrastructure will coexist, interact, and integrate.

The cloud computing era is just beginning, and widespread cloud software development models, standards and best practices have yet to take root. This situation represents an opportunity for new software suppliers to build a leading presence in the software solutions market, Natis believes. In addition, an important challenge for leading vendors is technical and business tasks - to maintain their leadership through expansion in a new space, without compromising the hard-earned stability in the dominance of the computing market.

Over the next five years, the fragmented and uncertain cloud application infrastructure space will rapidly evolve with technical and business innovation.

Large suppliers will grow through intracorporate development, partnerships and acquisitions, while small producers will grow through partnerships and specialization. Users will come to cloud computing as business application services (such as SaaS) and advanced platform services (such as PaaS) will achieve an acceptable level of development and offer new opportunities for innovative, technological and business models that will be difficult to resist.

The analyst also believes that over the next two years, PaaS's fragmented, specialized offerings will begin to merge into service suites aimed at prevailing use in PaaS. The use of such pre-integrated target software sets will be more attractive than the capabilities of the traditional onerous assembly of its own middleware software to support the project. By 2015, the developed PaaS bundles will provide a combination of the most customized PaaS forms into one integrated solution.

According to Gartner's forecast, by 2015 some of the business applications of most enterprises will function in the cloud using services or PaaS technologies directly or indirectly. Most of these enterprises will use a hybrid environment in which internal and external services are combined.

Notes