Business in the Cloud
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6.5.2
Platform-As-A-Service (PAAS)
Platform-As-A-Service stands for cloud-based platforms allowing companies to
develop their own applications or software, which intertwines with existing
applications. PAAS usually also bring along programming and execution
environments like for example Java, .NET, Python or Ruby on Rails in order to offer
consumers an immediate start with the programming process. As soon as the
applications or software are finished, they can be accessed through the premises of
the cloud provider. Often established enterprises tend to use PAAS to partially
outsource some of their infrastructure (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012, p. 56) & (Lenk,
Klems, Jens, Tai, & Sandholm, p. 2) & (Mell & Grance, 2011, p. 2f).
6.5.3
Software-As-A-Service (SAAS)
Software-As-A-Service is the biggest and nowadays most mature part of cloud
computing. It relates to applications, which run on the cloud provider’s IT
infrastructure instead of the consumer’s datacenter or hard disk. The applications
and software are accessible from various client devices, such as a web-browser
interface (e.g. IMC FH-Krems Outlook Web Mail Access), or via a program interface.
The consumer does not have the possibility to manage or alter the cloud service
provider’s infrastructure (including server architecture, network, operating systems,
or storage), with the exception of some specific application configuration settings
(
Mell & Grance, 2011, p. 2) & (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012, p. 56) (Baun, 2010, pp.
35-36).
6.5.4
Human-As-A-Service (HAAS)
Human-As-A-Service is a relatively new, non IT-related approach towards
categorization of cloud computing, whereas the user (human) and his or her actions
are in the foreground. This model assumes that “some services rely on massive-
scale aggregation and extraction of information from crowds of people.” Each entity
might use his or her individually preferred technology or set of tools, which is
