Cloud APaaS, a closer look at the service model that drives change and growth within the cloud

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Cloud APaaS

A closer look at the service model that drives change and growth within the cloud

APaaS exists somewhere in the 'middleware' section of cloud computing along with PaaS style offerings. In fact, APaaS are often confused for one another or used interchangeably. PaaS or platform as a service, compromises the applications servers like BPM, DBMS, ESB's, Messaging, Portals, as well as others. APaaS or Application Platform as a Service is more or less a horizontal extension of the types of offerings put forth in PaaS.

What does APaaS specifically handle or seek to accomplish?

In addition to data storage (data basing) and development tools, APaaS is a type of service model that gives cloud software developers the power to actually do their jobs, and do them well. Within the APaaS system, the actual software architectures of applications are built and established. It is also within this layer that overall portability (and the ability of an application to function alongside a bevy of other cloud applications as well as operating systems) is established. Since most of the actual developmental breakthroughs (both in terms of software and overall cloud usability) occur within the realms of the middleware (PaaS, APaaS) it makes sense that a great deal of attention is paid to it. While upper and lower end cloud architectures certainly serve their purposes, it is the middleware that individual users will actually see and interact with, and as a result, they will also retain the highest level of visibility (with respect to cloud computing news as well as financial contributions).

APaaS gives software developers a solid chunk of platform that they can stand on, with its own impressive workbench of tools, while they're constructing and envisioning new possibilities. The true selling point of APaaS however is its ability to provide accurate feedback regarding the functionality and compatibility of applications that are still under development. This is extremely important to software developers, who can take serious losses (in terms of both money and time spent) if they produce an application that simply won't function in an environment, behave as expected once deployed, or function in a compatible manner with other elements in a cloud infrastructure. These are the principal reasons why businesses are intently pouring funds into APaaS right now, the platform itself offers them a much higher percentage outcome that the applications that they're developing (either directly or indirectly via financial contribution) will turn out as expected; thereby increasing the potential of future returns on their investment. In other words, APaaS makes sense from a prudent financial standpoint because it gives investors a greater shot at producing what's often referred to as a 'sure thing'.

And of course, for those companies that want to run their IT and/or software development projects through an APaaS, they need only pay subscription fees and not licensing fees. What is the benefit here? Subscription is substantially cheaper than licensing and offers its own benefits when paired with cloud APaaS. Most APaaS packages that are put together for designers are often much easier to use than most standardized design tools. And these packages often allow software development teams to integrate and share their ongoing work more smoothly as well as run an entire project from start to finish much faster than with other types of interfaces/systems.

Businesses in particular are extremely excited about the potential of cloud APaaS to provide them with next generation solutions to ongoing as well as future problems. One unforeseen benefit of utilizing APaaS is its ability to greatly cut the amount of time required for software development, from problem identification to deployment of the supposed software solution.

The global emergence of APaaS will no doubt lead to the creation of a number of companies that will utilize the tools of APaaS to create their own business model; one that seeks to provide yet another proprietary service aimed at delivering timely solutions to business software issues. One particular area that could use the help is enterprise software, for example. Enterprise software (which is essentially business intensive software) is often hard to manage, difficult to customize and frequently falls short in its functionality. When you couple these shortcomings with the fact that it is often quite expensive, you have a serious problem. An obvious solution for dealing with enterprise software problems would be the deployment of an APaaS-style service. Not only would this greatly increase the overall functionality of expensive enterprise business software, but it would also allow for a great range of customization, as well as the option for integrating it with other cloud services and / or networking opportunities.

APaaS was created to make the lives of software designers, developers and investors much easier. It is through the use of APaaS that many excellent next generation apps have been developed and many experts in the field of cloud computing agree that it is APaaS that will produce some of the upcoming 'game changing' applications that will actually shape the future of cloud computing in general.

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