Also known as: PaaS
Platform as a service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model in which the provider runs the servers, operating system, and application runtime, and you simply deploy code without managing the infrastructure underneath.1
Overview
PaaS is the middle tier of the cloud stack. You push an application — a web app, an API, a background worker — and the platform builds, runs, scales, and patches it for you, often using containers behind the scenes. You do not log in to servers, install an operating system, or configure load balancing; those are the platform’s job. In exchange you accept its conventions about how apps are packaged and deployed.
Where it fits
PaaS sits above infrastructure as a service (raw VMs you must configure) and below software as a service (finished applications you just use). It overlaps with serverless computing, which pushes the abstraction further to per-request execution. For deploying a GopherTrunk web dashboard, PaaS removes server upkeep — but it cannot host the RF capture itself, which needs real radio hardware.
Sources
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Platform as a service — Wikipedia, on the PaaS cloud model. ↩