Software as a Service vs. Platform as a Service

There are certain characteristics that a service needs in order to be considered “Cloud”. There are different categories within Cloud Computing. There are huge differences between the Cloud categories Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Software as a Service (SaaS) is mainly designed for end-user and delivered over the web. On the other hand, Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the set of tools and services designed to make coding and deploying those application quick and efficient.

SaaS makes sense for businesses that are considering making the move to cloud since they will be able to take applications that they need such as email marketing. Currently, CRM (Salesforce Customer Relationship Management Product) is the most popular SaaS application area.

If you are looking for more power and control then using Platform as a Service (Paas) is what your organization should be looking at. PaaS has the simplicity of SaaS. Some of the basic characteristics are services to develop, test, deploy, host and maintain application in the same integrated development environment and also built in scalability of deployed software which includes load balancing and failover. If your company is using multiple developers or an external party for a project then you should highly consider using PaaS. PaaS is the major approach toward software development today.