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What is Platform as a service (PaaS)?


Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing service model that delivers an entire platform to an end user. The platform is most often used for application development. PaaS offers a ready-made system that makes it easier for developers to build software and apps.

PaaS includes the same infrastructure as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) plus additional resources for software and application development. These resources may include middleware, databases, development frameworks, and services.

The use of PaaS provides a ready-made platform to support and streamline application development, testing, deployment, management, and updates.




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Why is PaaS important?


By removing the need for businesses to purchase their own infrastructure

PaaS helps developers build, test, deploy, and run software and applications entirely in the cloud. The cloud computing service enables developers to focus on what they do best–developing software. With PaaS, there’s no need to worry about setup, maintenance, or administration of infrastructure. All of this is taken care of by the PaaS provider.

With PaaS, developers can create software and web applications faster and with less effort.


What are the business benefits of PaaS?


PaaS offers significant benefits to businesses looking to build software and applications, including:

  • Reduced costs – the customer does not need to purchase infrastructure, which is owned and hosted by the provider
  • Greater flexibility – the customer can scale resources up and down, paying only for the resources that are needed
  • Accelerated time to market – the customer can use the platform to build applications in less time
  • Enhanced collaboration – the customer’s developers can use the same development environment no matter where team members are located

How does PaaS work?


PaaS is a cloud computing service that offers a platform and environment for software and application development. A provider hosts infrastructure on-premise and delivers the PaaS platform to the customer over the internet.

A PaaS service typically includes infrastructure, development tools, databases, programming language, execution environments, and networking. Customers in essence rent a ready-made platform from a provider. They use the platform to create, test, and run applications. With PaaS, customers avoid the cost, time commitment, and complexity of building their own platform.

What is Platform as a service (PaaS)




PaaS vs IaaS vs SaaS


PaaS, IaaS and SaaS are the three main cloud computing services.

  • SaaS: Software as a service
  • IaaS: Infrastructure as a service
  • PaaS: Platform as a service

All three cloud computing services are delivered over the internet to an organization that pays for them on a subscription basis. As a result, a provider generates predictable, recurring revenue. Customers reduce costs by only paying for the resources that are needed for the time they are needed. They avoid the expense of purchasing the software and hardware outright.

PaaS vs SaaS


PaaS and SaaS are both cloud computing services. PaaS provides a platform for software and app development. SaaS (software as a service) delivers software applications. Both PaaS and SaaS are provided as a recurring service and delivered through the internet.



PaaS vs IaaS


PaaS and IaaS (infrastructure as a service) are both cloud computing services. PaaS is a development platform offered as a service while IaaS is infrastructure provided as a service. PaaS includes all of the same infrastructure offered by IaaS plus additional resources. These resources include infrastructure, tools, and services for software and application development.

Some of the resources offered by PaaS includes:

  • Development tools
  • Middleware
  • Operating systems
  • Database management
  • Development services

Both PaaS and IaaS infrastructure is hosted and owned by the provider and delivered over the internet.

Some of the infrastructure offered by IaaS includes:

  • Storage
  • Servers
  • Networking resources

What are examples of PaaS?


Some examples of PaaS offered by providers include:

  • AWS Elastic Beanstalk: supports the deployment and management of web applications with capacity provisioning, app health monitoring, and more
  • Microsoft Azure Pipelines: build and test code projects to make them available to others
  • Engine Yard: deploy and manage applications on AWS backed with support
  • Google App Engine: build scalable web and mobile back ends in any programming language on a fully managed serverless platform
  • Heroku: build, manage and deploy apps with a fully managed platform
  • IBM Cloud: combines PaaS and IaaS, and scales and supports both small development teams and large enterprise businesses
  • Mendix aPaaS: fully managed and hosted aPaaS used to deploy and run Mendix applications
  • Red Hat OpenShift: an enterprise Kubernetes platform that enables a cloud-like experience everywhere it’s deployed
  • VMware Cloud Foundry: an open-source, multi-cloud application platform as a service
  • Wasabi Cloud Storage: a drop-in replacement for AWS S3 for multi-cloud solution


What is Microsoft Azure PaaS?


Microsoft Azure PaaS is a deployment and development environment that enables the development of simple to complex cloud-based applications. Azure helps make it easier to build cloud-enabled services or custom apps. Azure customers can choose form the following PaaS service elements:

  • Web apps
  • Mobile apps
  • Logic apps
  • Functions
  • Web jobs

What is AWS PaaS?


Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides AWS Elastic Beanstalk to help customers deploy and run web applications. The applications can be developed with the following programming languages:

  • Java
  • Net
  • PHP
  • Ruby
  • Node.js
  • Python






What is Google PaaS?


Google’s PaaS solution, Google App Engine, is a platform that supports the development and deployment of applications. Like AWS Elastic Beanstalk, the apps support several programming languages and frameworks, which include:

  • Go
  • PHP
  • Java
  • Python
  • Node
  • JS
  • NET
  • Ruby

What are PaaS services?


PaaS is delivered as a service. It’s a platform leased but not owned by a customer that pays for access on an as-needed basis. PaaS offerings include hardware, software and services that facilitates software and app development, including:

  • Servers
  • Networks
  • Storage
  • Operating system software
  • Databases
  • Development tools


How is pricing handled for PaaS?


PaaS customers can follow a “pay as you go” pricing model. This payment model involves the customer paying for a specified amount of resources. Payments are made at regular intervals for the time the resources are needed. Or customers can pay for PaaS as a fixed fee based on amount of resources and number of users.

Who hosts PaaS infrastructure?


PaaS infrastructure is hosted by the provider at their own on-premises location. Customers reduce costs and save time using PaaS because they do not need to purchase and maintain their own infrastructure. PaaS offers customers greater flexibility by enabling them to scale the amount of resources up or down as needed.



How do developers use PaaS?


Developers use PaaS to manage the entire application lifecycle. The application lifecycle includes the following stages:

  • Building
  • Testing
  • Deploying
  • Running
  • Scaling

What is an “as a service” platform?


An “as a service” platform is a platform for software development that is delivered as a service over the internet. With platform as a service, or PaaS, developers receive an entire platform that makes creating software easier and faster. Users of PaaS do not need to purchase or maintain their own operating systems, software updates, storage, or infrastructure.



Ready to learn more?


Find out how CloudBlue can help providers simplify and deliver XaaS:


Subscription Billing Management

Subscription Billing and Management Solutions

Managed Services

Managed Services with CloudBlue Technology

End to End Distribution

CloudBlue Solution Overview – End-to-end XaaS Distribution Platform









Mike Jennett, Director of CloudBlue Platform Strategy, is an accomplished business and technology executive. With a deep focus on product development and go-to-market strategy, he plays a pivotal role driving strategic growth and market expansion. Mike’s career is characterized by his adeptness in driving technological advancements and his commitment to leading digital transformations with experience including IDC where he was VP of the Mobility and Digital Transformation IEP practices, and HP where he held numerous leadership roles. Mike’s expertise is also reflected in his published works and contributions to multiple tech publications. Mike holds a B.A. from California Polytechnic University.
Having previously to strategic product management, agile transformations, and user experience in CloudBlue, Taylor Giddens heads the Services & Solutions team where he ensures smooth delivery, operations and solution growth for our partners and customers.

The team includes technical account management, managed services, support, custom solution development, and customer enablement.

Prior to CloudBlue, his resume boasts leadership of some of the world’s largest companies during their digital transformations and marketplace launches. Taylor is a practitioner of servitude leadership when it comes to enabling his team to drive positive outcomes on the road to operational excellence.
Laurens van Alphen, a visionary entrepreneur with over 29 years of internet technology expertise, serves as Director of Technical Managed Services at CloudBlue, responsible for Operations and Delivery of CloudBlue SaaS.

As a Dutch racing champion and car enthusiast, he brings the same drive to the tech realm, steering Keenondots from a managed hosting firm to a global cloud enablement leader. Laurens is celebrated for his outcome-driven leadership, deep industry insight, and passion for balancing business innovation with client engagement.
Lincoln Lincoln is CloudBlue’s Head of Global Sales; having been with the company since November 2017. Leading CloudBlue’s global go-to-market organization, he’s responsible for driving accelerated and sustained mutual growth with CloudBlue’s customers and partners, as well as forming new customer partnerships across the Vendor and Provider ecosystem. As part of CloudBlue’s leadership team he is responsible the organisation’s revenue and continued market leadership by delivering and supporting products, services and solutions to organizations in established and new markets around the world.

Before joining CloudBlue, Lincoln was AppDirect’s Regional Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, responsible for forming, building and leading AppDirect’s business and operations across the APJ geography. He built and led AppDirect’s fastest growing and highest performing region globally within 3yrs.

Before joining AppDirect, Lincoln was EMC’s Practice Manager, Cloud Service Providers, APJ, working with the leading Service Providers to maximise their Cloud Business presence & market success. Lincoln joined EMC in 2007, and has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, having been based out of Singapore, Australia and the UK. Prior to EMC, he was in range of sales and channel positions at Symantec and VERITAS.

Lincoln has an Honours degree in Business Administration from Kingston University in the United Kingdom.
Brent Clooney is the Executive Director and Associate General Counsel for Ingram Micro Inc., and lead counsel for CloudBlue.

Brent is a Canadian based corporate lawyer with more than 20 years of experience as a strategic legal advisor both in private practice and as in-house counsel to large multi-national companies. Prior to joining Ingram Micro in 2008, he worked at a well-respected corporate law firm in Toronto, Canada and later served as general counsel for Toshiba Canada. During his 15-year tenure at Ingram Micro, he has held positions of increasing complexity and responsibility, and since being promoted to his current role in 2022, Brent is the legal lead for both Ingram Micro’s Canadian and global cloud businesses, as well as CloudBlue.

Brent holds a law degree (LL.B.) from Queen’s University, a Psychology degree (B.A. Honours) from Lakehead University, and has been admitted to the bar in Ontario, Canada since 2002.
Anurag serves as the Head of Product Management for CloudBlue and is responsible for product direction and driving innovation. His leadership has been marked by a keen focus on customer needs, growing the ISV ecosystem, and ensuring the continual evolution of CloudBlue’s product portfolio.

Anurag joined Ingram Micro in 2017 and has been instrumental in, positioning CloudBlue as an industry leading monetization platform for MSP’s, Telco’s and Distributors. Previously Anurag worked at Oracle and Microsoft where he managed many technology projects and programs.
As VP of Engineering of CloudBlue, Rony oversees the development and engineering efforts of the company. He is a recognized leader with more than 25 years of experience in Technology and Product.

Prior to joining CloudBlue Rony lead the R&D efforts at Tripwire acquired by Thoma Bravo, and Cedexis acquired by Citrix. Rony is a leader with extensive experience in transforming both complex technology problems into products that customers love and disjointed organizations into agile high performing teams.
Coen is a distinguished leader and entrepreneur in the realm of cloud technology. Currently serving as CEO of Keenondots and the Global Director of CloudBlue SaaS. He is passionate about driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and leading high-performing teams to achieve transformative results.

With a background as Managing Director of INTO Cloud and a pivotal role as Director of Products of KPN, he brings a wealth of experience in steering organizations through the complexities of the digital landscape.

Beyond the boardroom, Coen is a marathon enthusiast, demonstrating endurance and discipline in pursuit of both professional and personal goals.
Alyson has over twenty years of experience in demand generation, marketing automation and data management. She is responsible for leading the strategy and direction of the company’s brand, performance, and digital marketing.

Prior to CloudBlue, Alyson served as Ingram Micro’s Director of Global Business Intelligence Marketing Automation driving channel partner campaigns. Her tenure in marketing leadership at prestigious companies such as Western Digital, Ocean Institute celebrates redefining marketing campaigns and building top performing teams based on trust, experimentation, and results.

Alyson resides with her husband and three children in Orange County and is an active volunteer and donor within her children’s sports and education programs.

Darek Tasak is leading Customer Success & Value Creation for CloudBlue. In his role, he looks after CloudBlue customers globally during the entire lifecycle of our relationship: from the initial on-boarding, through in-life account management, always ensuring they build successful businesses leveraging our technology. Additionally, he is also in charge of Partnership & Alliances, as well as Pricing Management for everything we commercialize.


Before CloudBlue, Darek managed Ingram Micro’s Services division for hi-tech customers in Europe & APAC. His prior experiences include also launching and leading pan-European services business for TDSynnex, as well as strategy consulting with Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

As President of CloudBlue, Uddhav is a distinguished leader and visionary with nearly two decades of platform-building experience. He is an industry leader in digital commerce, the subscription economy, and monetization platforms.


Notably, at SAP, he spearheaded the transformation of their platform business into a multi-cloud platform-as-a-service, offering enterprise and developer-friendly subscription models. At Pure Storage, he championed the efforts to successfully disrupt the storage industry by creating revolutionary Storage-as-a-service, AIOps-as-a-service, and Disaster Recovery-as-a-service offerings with cutting-edge features and establishing a sophisticated subscription commerce infrastructure that is channel-friendly.


At CloudBlue, Uddhav guides and empowers businesses to rethink their monetization strategies by unlocking the power of digital ecosystems and marketplaces. CloudBlue provides enterprises with a mature multi-tier, multi-channel marketplace and monetization platform that enables usage-based subscription models and global delivery of Anything-as-a-Service solutions. Uddhav has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of the subscription economy through his innovative thinking and impactful contributions.

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