The Platform as a Service term is used to describe application development and deployment functionality available as a service. A complete Platform as a Service offering includes the entire web application lifecycle as a service on a single platform. The web application lifecycle is comprised of two main phases: development and delivery.
The integrated development environment (IDE) within a Platform as a Service is built specifically for the development of applications that leverage and present data via leading-edge user experiences. Top Platform as a Service solutions include comprehensive development, debugging, and testing tools presented in an IDE familiar to the majority of today's developers. A Platform as a Service joins the IDE with both testing and hosting environments. This eliminates complexity, time and cost requirements from the end-to-end lifecycle of developing and delivering rich web applications.
End-users are accustomed to ever increasing interactivity and functionality in web applications. The top Platform as a Service offerings deliver applications that meet or exceed these end-user expectations. Rich interactivity is an intrinsic part of the platform and frees developers from the challenge of pushing in interactivity after adding the functionality. Top Platform as a Service offerings deliver this interactivity with complete portability between browsers so end-users may use the browser of choice without forcing browser-specific programming by the application developer.
Platform as a Service enables connectivity to multiple data sources while abstracting the tedious task of writing the glue code to bring the sources together. Applications need to leverage existing investments in databases and internal or external web services, requiring that the platform offer a wide variety of connectivity options. Many applications require external services with "live" data from multiple sources, (updated at sub-second intervals) so automatically updated connections between applications and services must be the default (i.e., rich, multiplexed state management capabilities) without requiring additional engineering effort.
Platform as a Service supports both formal and on-demand collaboration throughout the entire software lifecycle (development, testing, documentation and operations), while maintaining security of source code and associated intellectual property. The ability to package, share, and obtain reusable source code and software components can dramatically increase productivity and reduce project risk and costs. Collaboration with other developers to solicit advice, share information, and form teams while maintaining privacy and security materially impacts the success of application development. This collaboration is a feature of the platform and does not require additional software or configuration.
The open source community has shown that great progress can be seen through the gathering of individuals working to solve similar problems. Platform as a Service enables the sharing of applications, code and knowledge by lowering barriers and providing the ability for the community to engage with each other.
With a Platform as a Service, once an application is ready for deployment it can be made instantly available to end-users without building, provisioning or maintaining hardware or software, or managing bandwidth and QOS contracts. Applications hosted on a Platform as a Service can reach any number of users from any place with speed, responsiveness and security expected by both the user and the business.
As applications are improved and are enhanced, new versions can be easily rolled out to end-users. With a straight-forward management console, organizations can control which version of an application is available without disrupting the end-user access.
Scalability, reliability and security should be built-in to a Platform as a Service without requiring additional development, configuration or other costs. Applications delivered on a Platform-as-a-Service:
- Automatically and reliably support web-scale use
- Allow the secure exchange of confidential information
- Securely execute of monetary transactions
Developers are free to build applications with knowledge that the security of customer data, network traffic, source code (intellectual property), and even server hardware is maintained automatically by the platform throughout application development and delivery.
Platform as a Service provides comprehensive instrumentation of application and user activity to provide greater insight into application usage and effect improvements. This deep instrumentation opens up many new opportunities from understanding the user experience to whole new business models. With instrumentation, organizations can see exactly how users are using the application, the type of performance they are experiencing and any application crashes. This information can also be leveraged to create new business models where costs are tied to actual utilities, rather than flat-rate subscriptions or licenses.
Bungee Connect is a complete Platform-as-a-Service. Learn more about the Bungee Connect Platform as a Service and how it delivers the entire application lifecycle.