PaaS to ‘engulf’ software industry

The Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) market is set to heat up in 2011, as vendors look set to push out a host of offerings, an analyst firm has claimed.

There will be plenty of innovation in the PaaS space as well and users can expect to see new vendors enter the market, either via acquisitions or through in-house development, Gartner said.

"By the end of 2011, the battle for leadership in PaaS and the key PaaS segments will engulf the software industry," said Yefim Natis, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

"It will be harder to find a consistent message, standards or clear winning vendors."

The offerings will themselves change from specialised models into "suites of services targeting the prevailing use patterns for PaaS," Natis said.

"By 2015, comprehensive PaaS suites will be designed to deliver a combination of most specialised forms of PaaS in one integrated offering," he added.

Rather than take businesses completely into the cloud, most companies will use PaaS as part of a hybrid model, where on-premises systems will operate alongside cloud-based infrastructure, the analyst firm suggested.

Most businesses will be using PaaS services directly or indirectly by 2015, as at least part of their operational software will be located in the cloud, Gartner added.

Last year saw some significant moves in the PaaS market.

At its Dreamforce event in San Francisco, Salesforce.com announced the acquisition of PaaS provider Heroku for around $212 million (134 million).