Cloud computing has significantly changed the way developers create and run business applications. Today, delivering new applications is as simple as opening a web browser. With Platform as a Service (PaaS), enterprises are able to run critical applications, without the hassle of managing hardware & software infrastructure within their office premises.

According to a research conducted by the US-based premium research and advisory firm, Gartner, PaaS is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 26.6% and reach $2.9 billion by the year 2016. With this momentum, this cloud hosting solution is anticipated to generate average revenue of approximately $360 million per year between 2011 and 2016. Moreover, the research firm further projects that the Application Platform Services (aPaaS) is pegged to be one of the fastest emerging segments, generating nearly 35% of the total PaaS spending, trailed by the revenues generated from the cloud application lifecycle services.

Let's dig deeper to understand the potential benefits of this deployment model and its viability for businesses 

PaaS is a proven business model that provides a platform for users to create software applications over the internet. It eliminates the complexity and expense of evaluating, purchasing, configuring, and managing various custom-built applications, without the hassle of constant upgradation. In addition, the other reasons that compel all size businesses to adopt PaaS deployment model are:

Faster Time-to-Market: The vendors provide a platform to allow users to manage critical applications in a simpler, scalable, and efficient way. It acts as a self service utility model, which enables developers to upload compiled codes with a simple click of a button. This increases their productivity, which in turn, leads to faster time to the market.

Streamlines Application Management: PaaS cloud hosting solutions provided by a reliable service vendor facilitates users to manage all applications from a centralized location. Additionally, the model enables software developers to swiftly access the company's internal infrastructure. This leads to optimal allocation of resources, making it feasible for organizations to free-up resources for other critical tasks.

Lowers Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Private PaaS offers a user friendly plug-and-play interface, which eliminates the requirement for time consuming configurations. In addition, the framework is based on the pay-per use model that allows firms to only pay for the service availed from the vendor. This significantly reduces their total cost of ownership. 

To conclude, PaaS supports the entire life cycle of a company, starting from building, testing, maintaining to delivering web-based applications & services in an integrated development environment. It follows pay-as-you-go business model that allows users to only pay on the basis of their usage and hence changes the cost structure of a company from Capital expense or Capex to Operational expense or Opex.