David Chappell wrote an interesting post on what the "real" definition of PaaS (Platform as a Service) is.
As with many emerging technologies, vendors try to cast their offering in the most favorable light by adjusting the definition to match what their product does.
He talks about the four main competitors: Microsoft (Windows Azure), Google (AppEngine), SalesForce (Force.com) and Amazon (Elastic Beanstalk) and how their systems have similar and also widely varying approaches.
The one capability that sticks out for me the most is "updating with no downtime." That seems like a entry-level requirement and one that surprisingly Amazon's Elastic Beanstalk currently doesn't support. This is a very new offering for Amazon so I have to imagine that it is on the radar for future enhancements. "Root Access to the VM" the application is running on seems like more of a selling opportunity to IT buyers concerned about giving up control-- if it works the way PaaS is supposed to, do I really need that level of access? Auto-scaling is another one that I think is a must-have across all of the stacks. If my demand spikes at 3am, please tell me a human is not required to increase the capacity-- automate please.
The PaaS space is certainly one that we at Pariveda see as the most promising and one that we look forward to discussing further with organizations. I will be speaking with Vaughan Merlyn in February and early March on the Threats and Opportunities in the Cloud in Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Seattle. If you're near the area during that time, sign up and come see us.
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