INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Software for Business
The xPaaS revolution and the rise of BizDevOps
Platform-as-a-service , or PaaS , is an increasingly popular cloud offering that enables developers and IT operations professionals to build and maintain applications while avoiding many infrastructure-related challenges and expenses . According to a 2014 IDC report , the global PaaS market is expected to reach $ 20.3 billion in 2018 as enterprises continue to adopt this new technology , writes Mike Piech , vice president and general manager , Middleware , Red Hat .
Playing on “ PaaS ,” Gartner coined the term xPaaS in 2013 to describe the broad spectrum of specialised middleware products that IT vendors offer as services , like integration Platform-as-a-service ( iPaaS ) or business process management Platform-as-aservice ( bpmPaaS ). xPaaS seizes the opportunity cloud computing provides to reimagine application development and operations , making these processes faster , easier , less risky , and more flexible .
Middleware meeting the cloud has facilitated the DevOps movement and predictably transformed how developers create applications and IT operations professionals manage them . But enterprise IT is only starting to experience the xPaaS revolution ’ s most surprising and exciting consequence as line of business managers become more closely involved in the software development process than ever before . The rise of “ BizDevOps ” is leading not only to tighter collaboration between IT departments and business managers , but also to heightened expectations , with businesses increasingly relying on technology to carve out unique competitive advantages .
Accelerating time to market One major benefit of xPaaS is accelerating applications ’ time to market . Innovation demands the ability to experiment , fail fast , and deliver before the competition . Developers must be free to focus on their applications , unhampered by the need to provision , configure , and secure their application infrastructure . IT operations can ’ t take on even more maintenance responsibilities , especially when many stacks deployed for the sake of rapid innovation may be extremely short lived . Architects need to provide an environment that maximises productivity , minimises cost and risk , and scales rapidly and securely .
The last generation of application platforms , integration buses , and process automation suites , while an
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