What Is PaaS (Platform as a Service)?

Platform as a service, or PaaS, is a cloud computing service model where a third-party provider offers access to hardware and software tools as a service via an internet connection. Most PaaS solutions provide application development tools and environments for software development teams that allow teams to develop, deploy, run, and manage apps. The PaaS provider is responsible for managing the hardware and software, and provides everything the customer needs for application development — freeing them from needing to worry about maintaining hardware, updating the operating system, or managing the underlying network. Customers can access the PaaS tools on demand with pay-as-you-go pricing.

When choosing a bot mitigation solution, there are several critical features and capabilities that will help to achieve your bot management goals.

• Effectiveness. Every bot mitigation solution can detect bots. The best technology must be able to detect the most sophisticated bots you are likely to encounter.
• Resilience. Many solutions detect bots initially but lose track of them once they start mutating. The best solutions learn and evolve over time to continue to mitigate bots for the long term.
• Fewer false positives. Blocking bots shouldn’t get in the way of doing business. Solutions that block humans or good bots will be a drag on productivity. The best solutions offer autotuning capabilities to minimize false positives.
• Visibility and reporting. When it comes to a solution that could potentially block your users, you want granular visibility and reporting capabilities that let you zoom in on specific bots, botnets, and bot characteristics.
• API protection. Unless your bot mitigation technology can protect your APIs, bots will simply migrate from web pages to APIs.
• Broad protection. While some bot management solutions are designed only to address a single problem, the best solutions should provide comprehensive protection against malicious bot traffic, whether it affects the entire site or specific pages.

Cloud computing enables organizations and users to access computing infrastructure like servers, storage, software, databases, and networking available as services over the internet, rather than purchasing, installing, and managing their own IT infrastructure on site. Using virtualization technology, cloud infrastructure abstracts the functionality of computing infrastructure from the actual hardware to create virtual pools of shared resources that can be accessed from anywhere with a network connection.

PaaS offerings are typically accessed via a web browser. PaaS solutions typically include a handful of components:

• Development tools include everything a developer needs to build an application, including a source code editor, debugger, compiler, and more.
• Middleware is software that exists between operating systems and user-facing applications, and allows different applications to communicate with each other.
• A graphic user interface, or GUI, allows development teams to access PaaS technologies throughout the entire application lifecycle.
• Operating systems manage all the hardware and software resources on a computer and provide common services for computer applications.
• Databases store and serve the data that applications rely on.
• Infrastructure such as servers, storage, and networking — all the components of IaaS offerings — are included in PaaS solutions, though usually as an underlying and often managed feature.

SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS are the three major categories of cloud computing services.

SaaS, or software as a service, provides customers with access to a turnkey application stack. Rather than installing software on local computers and servers, organizations and end users can access SaaS-based solutions via a web browser. SaaS providers host the application on their own infrastructure, taking responsibility for maintenance and upgrades. SaaS solutions enable users to always work with the latest versions of software.

PaaS solutions include the managed hardware infrastructure offered by a SaaS solution as well as additional tooling that is often suited toward application development, but do not provide access to complete software solutions in the same way that a SaaS-based solution does.

IaaS, or infrastructure as a service, provides access to basic computing resources such as servers, storage, and networking. Customers are responsible for managing their own software and operating systems on the IaaS solution but can achieve significant cost savings by avoiding the need to install and manage their own servers, storage, and other hardware in an on-premises data center.

• Speedy deployment. Development teams can access PaaS technologies quickly, speeding the creation of applications and accelerating time to market.
• Greater security. Like most cloud service providers, PaaS providers invest heavily in technology and expertise required to protect their cloud environment from cyberattacks and breaches. Many cloud services offer greater levels of security than in-house IT teams can provide for their digital assets on site.
• Dynamic scalability. With PaaS technology, development teams can quickly scale capacity up and down as needed to meet deadlines and business requirements.
• Faster coding. PaaS services can reduce the time it takes to code new applications by offering access to pre-coded components such as directory services, security, search features, and more.
• Cost effectiveness. With pay-as-you-go pricing, PaaS helps to save on the cost of provisioning and managing development environments.
• Remote access. By enabling the development environment to be accessed through an internet connection, PaaS solutions make it possible for geographically distributed teams to collaborate more easily.
• Effective DevOps. PaaS technology can play a key role in DevOps strategies that bring developers and IT operations together to rapidly develop and deploy software through continuous delivery.

Serverless computing is another model for cloud services that is similar to PaaS offerings. Both models allow developers to use development tools without worrying about the back-end infrastructure. Serverless computing solutions scale more easily than PaaS solutions and offer more precise billing. On the other hand, PaaS offers more granular control over configuration of the underlying application infrastructure, making it easier to test and debug applications and understand application logic. Serverless computing offers no such control.

Kubernetes is an open source solution for managing and orchestrating software containers, where all of the elements needed for running an application are included in the container. This allows containerized software to run on any machine in any operating environment. Managed Kubernetes solutions are considered an evolutionary step beyond the basic PaaS technology.

Development teams rely on a PaaS solution for several key IT initiatives.

• Agile development. Software development teams can rely on PaaS to provide fully configured environments that automate every step of the software development lifecycle — from development and testing to delivery and deployment.
• API development. PaaS makes it easier for teams to develop, run, and manage application programming interfaces (APIs) that are designed to share data and functionality between applications.
• loT. PaaS offerings typically support an array of programming languages, including Java, Python, Swift, and more, as well as the tools and application environments required for Internet of Things (IoT) development and data processing.

• Service availability. Because PaaS solutions are accessed over the internet, any outages or connectivity issues can significantly impact productivity for PaaS users.
• Shared security. Most PaaS solutions operate with a shared responsibility model for security, in which the customer is responsible for securing their own data and applications. When IT teams or organizations misunderstand this model, serious gaps in security may result.
• Loss of control. PaaS offerings often raise concerns about information security, data residency, and vendor lock-in.