Correcting Cloud-based FUD: Addressing PaaS Myths And Misconceptions

After only a short walk on the exhibition floor at the AWS re:Invent conference, it becomes clear that the whole 'Something-as-a-Service' acronym is getting severely overused. There's IaaS, SaaS and PaaS, which we're all familiar with, but now there is Data aaS, Batch aaS, Desktop aaS, Network aaS and the list goes on. Not only is it a full-time job keeping track of all of these cloud based service offerings, but the number of vendors in a common space who are providing drastically divergent offerings can make things pretty confusing. So, how does an enterprise architect or an IT director deal with an industry that seems to be constantly introducing new technologies, while at the same time, redefining ones on which IT professionals have only recently got a handle?

There are a few go-to people TheServerSide keeps at the front of the Rolodex. When it comes to cloud computing, and especially the Platform as a Service space, it's former JBoss Inc CTO and current Cloudbees CEO, Sacha Labourey. So we asked Labourey how, with so many different offerings in the cloud computing space, especially in the PaaS space in which Cloudbees competes, how it is that an enterprise software professional can cut through the FUD, decide whether a PaaS based solution is the right approach for the future, and if it is, how does one figure out what they should be looking for in a PaaS provider. Here's Labourey's take on the issue, as he attempts to allay the misconception that all PaaS offerings are the same. -Cameron McKenzie, Editor in Chief of TheServerSide

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