PaaS

Platform as a service: A cloud service that provides a computer platform for developers of web applications. These can be both quickly deployable runtime environments (typically for web applications) and development environments that can be used with little administrative effort and without the need to purchase the underlying hardware and software. They support the entire software lifecycle from design to development, testing, delivery and operation of the web applications via the Internet. PaaS offerings are based on a scalable infrastructure (IaaS) of storage and computing power and can therefore also scale. Based on a PaaS environment, Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings can be created. PaaS is therefore the middle layer in the cloud stack between IaaS and SaaS.