The IT Guide to PaaS

[This article was written by Navrup Johal.]

 PaaS has been such a great innovation for developers. They can develop and deploy applications from their desktop to the cloud, all in a consistent environment. They can deploy to production themselves, bypassing the IT middleman and speeding up the application delivery process. And they can develop in any language they want, without limitations. Developers have it made! But what about IT?

Does PaaS help them in any way or is it just another system for them to manage? Is this an unnecessary complication or does it help them? Why do they need PaaS?

In truth, IT departments are not seeing the tangible benefits from their cloud investments. Virtualization helps, but doesn't solve the entire problem. Although VMs can be easily created on-demand, applications still need their supporting software to be manually installed and configured. The application delivery bottleneck hasn’t eased, just moved. This combined with the fact that many developers are going rogue to the public cloud, leaves IT in a quandary. How can they ease their workload without sacrificing the oversight that is so desperately needed?

Private PaaS is just like public PaaS, but with full IT control. Sure, that sounds great. But what does it actually deliver? How will this achieve the seemingly incompatible tasks of making IT more productive while easing their workload?

What are some IT challenges that Stackato Private PaaS can help with?

Manual configuration of web server environments 
Stackato automatically recognizes an application's middleware dependencies and automatically installs and configures all required software - for any development language. It eliminates manual IT configuration. 

Automatic application scaling
Applications automatically scale to meet demand, without needing additional scripts or relying on third-party services. IT has total control over how applications scale in order to manage resources while ensuring application availability.

Cloud security
All application instances are inside their own secure virtual container, using Docker-based Linux Containers. They have their own web server and runtime and are isolated from each other, protecting the host operating system.

Infrastructure lock-in
Stackato is infrastructure agnostic and compatible with any underlying IaaS. If your business needs change, you can quickly and seamlessly deploy to any public, private, or hybrid cloud.

System monitoring
IT can easily monitor the system using the Stackato Dashboard and API-backed command-line tools.

Control
With an on-premise PaaS platform, IT has full control over the entire system. They do not have to depend on the uptime, downtime, support, or infrastructure of an external provider.

Consistent environments
The micro cloud, for client machines, is a scaled down VM that is the same as the production environment. Developers can work on their personal machines knowing that once they deploy to the cloud, the environments will be the same – and the app will work!

Activity Stream
Enables simplified communication for DevOps: facilitates an online dialog around any application-based event. Though a private PaaS will actually reduce the amount of interaction time, it allows for more quality interactions.

Private PaaS isn’t just for developers; IT has a lot to gain as well. The complications and delays normally associated with the application delivery process are alleviated with Private PaaS. By automating the process and providing clear and complete monitoring, IT has full control while remaining out of the weeds. Check out these real-life examples!

Download the "IT Guide to PaaS"