PaaS : Everything You Wanted To Know

PaaS or Platform as a Service has a great opportunity to transform application development. PaaS is intended for application deployment, still website can run. WordPress is also a PHP MySQL based web software and a pure web application is also a PHP MySQL based web software; both can run nicely on a PaaS. But there is difference in usage pattern both from the frontend and backend.

PaaS : A Brief Look Back

The most common definition for Platform-as-a-Service or PaaS is described as a technological layer that assists developers in the role of deployment and scalability of their applications. Another concept often associated with PaaS services to distinguish it from other types of services is- if the user need to touch the operating system then it is not PaaS but IaaS should be the choice. IaaS means a blank server in very crude form. In other words, while the IaaS hides the physical layer, the PaaS hides virtual machines and the operating system. PaaS eliminates the need for the application manager to control also the underlying operating environment.

We have published many guides and articles on PaaS, some important articles in this contest are :

• A Reference Article on Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• A special PaaS is Application Platform as a Service or aPaaS

aPaaS is typically designed to handle a high load CMS based website. Rackspace Cloud Sites is the perfect example of aPaaS. Obviously we have guides on App Fog, Heroku Cloud, Red Hat OpenShift where we have shown to install WordPress to run a website. But keep in mind, that infrastructure is not for handling a website like this one.

What are the barriers of a typical PaaS not to handle a high load website

Removal of some of the issues related to the deployment is certainly one important aspect that comes to the rescue for the application developer. A time consuming process or impossible to carry out process is actually not suitable for a PaaS.

Developing on the cloud is not a totally new experience. The transition is almost certainly less traumatic than others which occurred in the history of computing, but it is not immediate. For most of the developers, however, the need is to have an available, scalable architecture with good flexibility at no or less cost, most of the developers work within a PaaS providing companies has very different concerns which actually makes a PaaS less suitable for a bigger website hosting.
 

 
A PaaS platform is a basis for the next generation application development, removing the burden from the shoulders of the developers, maintain and improve these capabilities; moreover, the time taken to plan and then keep these operational applications is not less to that of deployement and scalability, indeed.

But for a typical high load website, there is definite need to seek the Operating System, SFTP or FTP or other many features. The backend of WordPress is actually the frontend of a Server, but for PaaS, it becomes blurred as the whole thing is running on (usually) Java EE.