Platform as a Service
Learn what Platform as a Service (PaaS) is, and how you might benefit from using PaaS with IBM® Integration Bus.
A PaaS cloud configuration automates the execution environment and solution deployment. For example, acting as an operating system that supports IBM Integration Bus. A typical PaaS provider consists of many servers that each provide customized environments, and can dynamically allocate resources to that environment where and when they are required.
Applications are deployed into this environment, and are often charged by usage or capacity, which means that you pay only for as much as you use or specify, which can greatly reduce operating costs.
The benefits of using a PaaS configuration are:
- Reconfiguring and maintenance of the environment is faster and requires significantly less effort.
- If you use a PaaS provider, maintenance and optimization are provided, requiring less developer time.
- Dynamically scalable. PaaS automatically increases or decreases resources, which are based on demand. You usually pay only for the resources that are used.
Considerations for using PaaS are:
- Choosing a PaaS vendor with the right cost model for your usage.
- Whether the PaaS provider has any restrictions on what type of content and applications are allowed.
- What frameworks, languages and databases are supported.
- Vendor lock-in, and choosing standard or proprietary technologies. If your provider uses proprietary technologies, you might find it harder to switch vendors.
- Security and data compliance, if you have restrictions for data use and sharing.
- Dependency on the PaaS vendor for aspects of security and uptime.
- Requires new and different security measures.
For an example of a PaaS-based IBM Integration Bus solution, review the following business context:
A hospital uses an IBM Integration Bus solution that uses the Connectivity Pack for Healthcare. The hospital is aware of the normal usage requirements of their current solution. However, they have costly infrastructure so that they can accommodate unexpected peak periods, such as a major accident where the hospital is processing messages at full capacity. The hospital wants to be able to reduce its costs of operation, without risking that they have inadequate resources for its peak usage.
The hospital changes its infrastructure to a PaaS solution by paying a PaaS provider for public cloud servers. The hospital pays by capacity, and opts to pay for a fully dynamic, automatic scaling of their PaaS solution. If there is an unexpected demand on the solution, the hospital automatically is given more resources. The hospital pays for the extra resources that are used, but for only when those resources are used.
The static solution remains the same cost throughout the year, but the PaaS solution cost is consistently lower, except during peak usage. While the peak usage costs more than the static solution equivalent, it also shows that the static solution risked not fulfilling the business needs at that specific point in time. With this PaaS solution, the business can dynamically get the resources that are required. The result is that the hospital has the capacity it needs, when it is needed.