PaaS Booming
After an initial sluggish start, where Microsoft Windows Azure was the only player, we started to see increased support for Platform as a Service from major vendors starting with VMware vFabric and Red Hat OpenShift.
However, there was still a void in the PaaS space as the major players IBM and Oracle initially did not announce any PaaS offering. Now the recent announcements from both Oracle and IBM have shown complete support for PaaS as the way to go for future enterprise application development. This is great news for enterprises to move forward. Let's analyze the developer-friendly features of both the IBM and Oracle PaaS offerings.
Feature Comparison of IBM vs Oracle PaaS
|
Oracle Cloud - PaaS |
IBM Cloud - PaaS |
|
As part of platform services, Oracle Database Service is available. It is built on the Oracle Database 11g Release 2. It has got the full support of standard SQL and PL/SQL.
From API perspective JDBC and RESTFUL Web Services support are exposed.
Oracle Application Express (APEX) supports rapid application development . |
IBM PaaS which is known as the IBM SmartCloud Application Services also provides Database As A Service based on DB2 Enterprise Edition Server.
Between Oracle and DB2 there are very little differences from enterprise usage. If you look into the www.tpc.org for transaction processing performance, both have achieved impossible heights which will suit for any normal processing needs. |
|
Oracle PaaS named as ‘Java Cloud Service' provides a complete development environment for Java EE.
As Java EE standards are continuously evolving, as of now the service, supports all EE components like SERVLETS, JSF, JPA, EJB , JAX-WS. The entire platform is supported with the container framework delivered by the Oracle WebLogic Server. |
IBM Application Services for SmartCloud (PaaS) supports middleware development using Java EE and .net. The roadmap suggests support for ESB(Enterprise Service Bus) as Service and Messaging As A service. While the implementation level details are yet to be elaborated from publicly available materials, it would be certain that these platform offerings extensively use the highly scalable WebSphere Application Server suite of products. Much Like Oracle VS DB2, there are no obvious lenience to any of WebSphere or WebLogic . Both have existed for a while and have been supporting tons of mission critical applications. |
|
To support rapid application development life cycle, the Oracle PaaS environment supports, Jdeveloper, Eclipse and Net Beans.
The build and deployment process is supported with the framework and tools , Ant, Maven.
Other than the built in features of JDeveloper no explicit Application Life Cycle Management tools are see in Oracle Environment. |
IBM PaaS inclusive of popular Rational suite of ALM (Application Life Cycle Management) products. As the Application Life cycle has multiple phases respective products will support the phases of SDLC.
IBM Rational Requirements Composer IBM Rational Quality Manager IBM Rational Design Management IBM Rational Team Concert
Also Application Environment Service support deployment of applications based on pre configured patterns. The Workload deployer component provides a easy graphical interface to package an entire application.
|
Summary
Detailed technical documentation, "How Tos," is not yet available on both versions of PaaS. However, from these highlighted features PaaS gets further momentum in the enterprise and will soon become the development environment of choice.