PaaS cloud computing is quickly gaining steam, but lags behind both IaaS and SaaS models. This means that while a viable deployment option for programmers in the cloud is on the way, developers of IaaS are currently the ones directing the market.
With a $2.8 billion market backing it, it’s clear that PaaS has made an impact on the cloud world. But, according to Stefan Reid, a Forrester Research analyst, “It will become over the next 10 years a $10 billion market.” The market has a great deal further to go, and this gives developers a chance to make their mark, since many businesses are not yet locked into using a single provider.
Force.com from Salesforce and Windows Azure from Microsoft are the current front-runners in the PaaS industry, but they are by no means the only contenders. Google, Caspio, LongJump, Tibco, and WaveMakers, just to name a few, are all companies that are developing their own PaaS. Google, in particular, has attracted a great deal of interest as many companies feel that they can trust the search engine giant to manage their data and their platforms.
What’s odd in the market currently is the lack of speedy adoption by users. IaaS is seeing far greater adoption, and while Reid says that PaaS is an “immature market with lots of potential risks for buyers,” he also believes that IaaS is overall a less worthwhile service. With PaaS, users get the ability to develop and define their managed platform, whereas IaaS provides only virtualized hardware.
Predictions are for IaaS users to run into far more roadblocks as the decade goes on, and to see the use in developer-created PaaS solutions. This, in turn, should speed the growth of the PaaS industry.
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