Is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) Solution Right for Your Business?

When to Use PaaS

In a previous blog article, we explained the concept of platform as a service (PaaS) in cloud computing and outlined some of the important benefits that PaaS solutions can deliver for businesses of all types and sizes.

Briefly, PaaS is a cloud computing model in which a third-party provider not only supplies the infrastructure for your business’ computing, storage, and networking needs, but also provides software tools for application development, data management, and more. By leveraging Microsoft’s Azure solution and their PaaS platform, Stratus Innovations Group can help your business shift essential operations to the cloud, which can yield a wide range of cost-saving benefits.

In this article, we’ll discuss ways that PaaS can create value for your organization and provide a few examples of how and why businesses implement PaaS.

When to Use PaaS for Your Business

PaaS has applications for everything from fundamental IT needs to developing new revenue streams, which is why businesses of every size should consider PaaS solutions. You should especially consider PaaS if any of the following statements apply to your business:

Your application has variable usage patterns (like significantly higher Black Friday transaction requests for a retailer with more regular volume at other times).
You are entering a new market and need to determine if your business is viable and whether or not to invest further resources in this new opportunity.
You need to rapidly develop and deploy one or more applications.
You have multiple developers or teams of developers working together on a project.
Your development team needs to collaborate with outside vendors.

But app development is only one of the areas where PaaS solutions can help businesses tackle complex challenges, cut costs, increase efficiency, develop new revenue models, and achieve their goals. Companies successfully implement PaaS in many contexts, for example:

Fast, Scalable Application Development
PaaS provides a framework that developers can build on as they customize cloud-based applications. By using built-in software components and cloud features like scalability and multi-tenant capability, developers can significantly reduce the coding time required for creating and launching an app.

Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics
PaaS vendors provide tools that organizations can use to comb through enormous amounts of data and generate real, actionable insights. These insights can inform product design, improve the accuracy of predictions and forecasting, and guide important business decisions. For companies planning or launching a major BI initiative, PaaS lets them avoid the financial risk and massive long-term costs associated with installing all of the necessary hardware and software on site.

Integration With Legacy Systems
A PaaS vendor can provide apps and tools that integrate data from legacy systems. These components can enhance systems by improving workflows, strengthening security, and streamlining scheduling, among other benefits.

Example Business Cases for PaaS

Below, we’ll discuss three specific uses for PaaS. These use cases cover a few common scenarios that lead many companies to implement PaaS.

PaaS Use Case #1: Excess Baggage
The situation: Your company has a large number of legacy applications that you depend on, but they’re expensive to maintain and operate. You’d like to phase out some of these applications, but this process may take years, and you need to reduce costs in the meantime.

How Paas can help: While integrating legacy systems with PaaS can pose a challenge, PaaS solutions can cut operating costs for your existing applications by sharing resources and reducing the amount of management they require. A PaaS vendor can help you implement cutting-edge apps that incorporate data from your legacy systems, allowing you to unlock the full potential of your existing systems while simultaneously making them easier to use and more efficient.

PaaS Use Case #2: Need for Speed
The situation: Your company is working on a new application, and you need to find a way to develop, deploy, and update it rapidly.

How Paas can help: By moving your IT infrastructure into the cloud, PaaS frees up valuable resources that your company would otherwise sink into maintaining on-site hardware and the staff needed to run it. In addition, PaaS is much quicker to get up and running compared to on-premises solutions. PaaS solutions also provide developers with helpful tools, templates, and code libraries to develop applications quickly and efficiently. Developers can even create powerful apps by using a wide range of drag-and-drop components that are included within the PaaS environment. Together, all these advantages can significantly shorten a project’s time to release.

PaaS Use Case #3: Tearing Down Walls
The situation: Your company wants to promote innovation and cut down on redundancy by allowing all your developers to see code from every project in the company.

How Paas can help: PaaS allows your organization to implement practical, accessible tools for a wide range of projects. This eliminates silos and allows developers to better perceive how their work integrates into the greater whole. With a transparent, cloud-based environment, different teams can now work together to find common solutions, and your company can ensure that nobody wastes valuable time and resources writing code to solve a problem that another team has already cracked. Plus, PaaS provides access across locations and time zones so individuals can be productive wherever they are.

Contact Stratus Innovations Group to Find Out How PaaS Solutions Can Help Your Business Grow and Innovate

The examples above only scratch the surface of the amazing benefits that PaaS offers for businesses of all types and sizes. Our team of experts at Stratus Innovations Group is ready to work with your business to find a PaaS solution that addresses your unique challenges and meets your needs.

To speak with someone from our team, call 844-561-6721 or fill out our quick and easy contact form. We focus exclusively on leading-edge cloud solutions that help organizations increase efficiency and profitability. We’ll help you bring the power of the cloud to your business!

Posted in Virtual Data Centers and tagged platform as a service