Let's start with the main thing: the cloud platform is not just the imperative of time. The cloud platform allows you to accelerate the introduction of innovations, gives simplicity, speed and control of the introduction of new business solutions, and finally transplants you from the passenger seat behind the steering wheel, giving all the means of managing the activities of the organization right into your hands. There is no doubt that the technology of cloud platforms is now becoming one of the main factors of technical progress in the coming year.

And now let's talk more about what a cloud platform is and how to gain competitive advantages with its help.

What is Oracle PaaS?

Tell me, do you understand what PaaS (Platform as a Service) technology is? The question is not idle. A recent survey by Oracle among organizations found that only 32% of respondents understand exactly what PaaS is, and 29% do not understand it at all.
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You will say - why should I know such things? I am engaged in business, IT support is a matter of IT specialists. But the thing is - now everything has changed. The cloud has made IT resources economical, flexible and convenient, which means that a modern manager who knows what a cloud platform is doesn’t need an extra level of management in the form of an IT department to solve IT project supply and management tasks. Looking ahead, let's say - IT departments are still needed, just the range of their tasks is changing.

So what is a cloud platform (PaaS)? From an Oracle point of view, the cloud platform provides the tools by which organizations can develop, deploy, and run applications without the expense and complexity involved in building and managing the necessary platform and infrastructure. For those familiar with the “tiers” of an organization's IT structure, the cloud platform is somewhere between infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS).

Three main features of the "right" PaaS:

• PaaS connects a “client” business application (for example, a time sheet or a payroll application) to the internal infrastructure required to support this application (that is, computing resources, network and storage).
• PaaS includes a pre-installed and customizable database and middleware (components such as application platforms, integration tools, process management, content management, and web site management).
• PaaS offers a platform for developing, testing, and deploying various types of enterprise-level applications, such as transactional and analytic applications.

The cloud platform can also provide “big data” business intelligence (huge amounts of various unstructured data from various sources), enable the distribution of SaaS applications to all areas of business (both locally and in the cloud) and provide fast scaling of new web services. And it is Oracle that offers a complete set of best-in-class platform services for any category, such as application development, data management, IT operations management, visual analytics, integration, content and processes, security, big data and mobile services.

Can a business be a bit cloudy?

Could - while cloud technologies were just a succession of solutions. But today it is already clear that the future of corporate IT is not limited to the introduction of one or two cloud services (no matter what strategic importance they have), but lies in the implementation of an integrated cloud strategy. Companies implementing such a strategy are a few steps ahead of those who use only individual cloud technologies - because they completely transform business processes and as a result receive much more benefits.

This does not mean that today it is already possible to fully switch to cloud technology. Until the introduction of such systems for another ten years, but for now cloud infrastructures will exist side by side with local ones. This means that you do not need to turn out to be from your investments in existing systems. Today your task is to combine available resources and technologies with their cloud and hybrid equivalents. But how to do that?

The general answer is to find a tool that will allow you to integrate public and private cloud and local applications, middleware and infrastructure, and enrich them with data from your enterprise. And what is this remedy?

These tools are the PaaS cloud platform, which ensures that all elements of the cloud environment successfully interact with each other and work with optimal performance. The best PaaS systems provide integration between various cloud services (such as SaaS and IaaS), allows you to virtualize processes such as developing web applications without losing access to the standards and tools used in the local environment, and also make it possible to easily transfer local applications to cloud and back. In addition, a good PaaS platform provides ready-made functionality that you can add to your SaaS applications, offers cloud application development services (databases and middleware) for writing and deploying your own code or customizing SaaS applications, and at the same time allows you to work without problems with setting up and updating applications.

Oracle PaaS is such a platform.

What will happen to IT departments?

Everything will be fine with them. They not only have no reason to “die out”, on the contrary, from now on their work will become more creative and innovative, and their role in business strategies will become more important.

With the introduction of the cloud platform, IT professionals have more time to increase the efficiency of business operations. Cloud technologies free them from such time-consuming tasks as repairing and backing up databases, encrypting data, and setting up disaster recovery. They no longer need to deal with the tasks of providing and configuring services — all these processes are automatically performed in the cloud.

This means that IT professionals can devote more time and energy to developing new solutions that directly affect the efficiency of business operations and services provided to customers. Now there are almost no tasks in which the IT department is not involved - from creating innovative mobile applications to collecting data to increase the efficiency of the IT department itself and interact with business units to increase the efficiency of their work. And cloud platforms give organizations the ability to create a unified IT environment to quickly develop, test and implement their own unique applications, as well as implement third-party technology.

But how does the cloud platform accelerate the development of corporate IT? After all, the speed of application development has not changed? The fact is that in the “pre-cloud” era (which still prevails in most organizations), developers could not use the trial and error method. Development costs were too high, and since IT departments were responsible for developing new tools and integrating them, they were not allowed to make mistakes. But thanks to cloud technologies, companies no longer have to test applications on the market! If a company wants to quickly evaluate an application, it can be done in the cloud, using the built-in toolkits and cloud resources for building the application and subsequent testing.

All this opens up a whole world of opportunities for IT organizations - and therefore a wide, constantly growing range of new digital services has become available to cloud consumers today.

Go ahead for innovation!

So, PaaS is an ideal tool for innovation, as it provides the flexibility needed to quickly develop web applications. Instead of experiencing innovations in the market, companies can get the necessary resources from the cloud using built-in development tools to implement their own ideas. In addition, the platform can be used in parallel with the existing infrastructure that provides routine business processes - which is why we are confident that by 2025, development and testing of applications will fully occur in the cloud.

Let's look at examples of how this is happening now.

PaaS for IT suppliers. Calix works in the field of information technology and supports a continuous cycle of innovations, which IT department is responsible for implementing. In order to quickly and easily integrate heterogeneous systems, the company uses the Oracle Integration Cloud Service, a cloud service with which it can deploy new applications in just 6–8 weeks.

PaaS in insurance . Insurance giant AIG is now exploring whether it is possible to use unmanned aerial vehicles (“drones”) for operational surveys at the site of natural disasters in order to make decisions on insurance claims faster. This is a great example of the development and testing of an experimental innovation application made possible by PaaS.

PaaS in agriculture. The American company Monsanto introduces innovations through the collection and processing of information important to farmers. For example, sensor matrices are responsible for planting grains at the most appropriate depth in the most fertile part of the field. Innovative agricultural application implemented on the platform PaaS.

PaaS in health care. The Australian pharmacy network National Pharmacies has developed an application that helps patients monitor the purchase of medicines: the application automatically notifies you of the need to pick up the drug at the pharmacy and keeps a shopping log.

PaaS and the Internet of Things. Samsung's smart Internet-connected fridge allows the owner to check content with a Samsung smartphone and even helps to plan healthy meals for the whole family. Cars with new sensors and devices connected to the Internet already simplify the work of the driver by providing driving automation, and soon there will be cars on the roads that do not need a driver at all - they will use the Internet of things to plan the route and avoid collisions. In the digital age, the Internet of Things is absolutely essential to ensure the highest quality customer service. But what does the cloud platform have to do with it?

The meaning of the Internet of Things is not to add sensors and “intellectual functions” to devices, it is to create innovative applications that use this technology to form value. You can install as many sensors as you like, but they will be useless without applications that integrate the data of the Internet of things into the appropriate enterprise systems and logic to create value for consumers. This means that companies need an environment in which they can test applications for the Internet of Things with minimal costs and risks.

There is only one way to solve this issue - cloud platforms. It is the cloud platform that allows you to quickly develop and test applications for the Internet of Things in the cloud. Moreover, it allows you to combine Internet of Things data with necessary data from other sources, such as CRM systems, sales and marketing systems, or even unstructured data from social networks, and provide access to them for all corporate applications. In this way, the cloud platform helps turn data from IoT sensors into information that an application can use to create value.

Today, many companies are fighting for survival. They have to deal with the ever-growing demands from customers, new competitors using digital technologies, new business models. In order to adapt, compete and win, companies must move from improvised solutions to a fully managed cloud platform. Given the enormous impact PaaS can have on the approach to corporate IT, from “prosaic” production and sales systems to “magical” innovations of the Internet of things, this technology is the future of any company that hopes to win its market share.

We only talked about the individual features of PaaS, but you probably want to learn more about how you can transform your business using this technology. To learn more, download our PaaS tutorial.