When enterprises talk about using cloud platform as a
service, they are referring to hosting infrastructure and programming software
to create and establish web-based applications.
Many companies now have apps that can be accessed on mobile devices,
tablets and Ipads. Wal-Mart and target
both have apps to tell you what types of products they sell, what stores near
you carry these products, and the prices of them. Takeout services like Pizza Hut and Dominoes
also have apps to make ordering more efficient and timely. Even big television networks like ABC Family
and Disney Channel have apps to watch episodes of your favorite show right off
of your device. But these apps are
created on a cloud platform.
Not all
companies have the money or resources to create these types of apps on their
own. Companies like Google are taking
advantage of new opportunities by creating a platform service for such
businesses. Google created the Google
App Engine, a platform to build and produce your own applications using Google
technology and infrastructure. This engine makes websites and business/game
applications.
Microsoft
also has a cloud computing platform called Windows Azure. Windows Azure brings your public and private
clouds together and provides many “tools, languages, and frameworks” to build
your applications. It has unlimited
servers and storage.
Citrix
cloud platform powered by Apache Cloudstack lets you “build, manage, and
deliver highly scalable and efficient private, public and hybrid Infrastructures
as a service clouds." This engine lets
big enterprises advance their own infrastructures and provides all the tools a
smaller business would need to develop one.
Citrix builds a bridge with Amazon to access many of their tools.
The cool
thing about cloud platform as a service is it takes away the hard part of
building apps. Infrastructure is already
provided so companies only have to pay for needed space. Platform makes modern day business more
efficient for themselves as well as the consumer by granting easier access to
important sales functions.