An introduction to web applications architecture
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# Platform as a Service (PaaS)

NIST (2011) defines PaaS as:

> The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.

PaaS provides an infrastructure for developing web applications. PaaS is analogous to SaaS except that, rather than being software delivered over the web, it is a platform for the creation of software, delivered over the web.

Features of PaaS include:

- Services to develop, test, deploy, host and maintain web applications in the same integrated development environment.
- Web based user interface creation tools help to create, modify, test and deploy graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
- Support for development team collaboration – a multi-user environment to allow several users to work on the same application concurrently.
- Integration with web services and databases.

PaaS is especially useful in any situation where several developers are working on the same development project. It also is useful where developers wish to automate testing and deployment services.

◄Contents►Next: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

OpenLearn - An introduction to web applications architecture
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