Definition
Platform as a Service - the Salesforce Lightning Platform (formerly Force.com) delivery model that provides a complete cloud development and deployment environment, allowing customers to build applications without managing servers or infrastructure.
Real-World Example
At their company, the IT director at Vertex Global leverages Platform as a Service (PaaS) to scale their operations using the Salesforce platform. Platform as a Service (PaaS) gives them the infrastructure and tools needed to support new business requirements, handle increased data volumes, and serve a growing user base without compromising performance.
Why Platform as a Service (PaaS) Matters
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing category where the provider delivers a complete development and deployment environment. The Salesforce Lightning Platform (formerly Force.com) is a PaaS offering that provides everything customers need to build applications: data model, security, automation, UI tooling, APIs, and runtime infrastructure, all without requiring customers to manage servers, storage, or operating systems.
PaaS sits between IaaS (where customers manage the OS and runtime) and SaaS (where customers use a complete pre-built application). The Lightning Platform's PaaS nature is what enables rapid development on Salesforce: developers and admins focus on solving business problems rather than managing infrastructure. The trade-off is being constrained to the platform's capabilities and architectural choices, but for most Salesforce customers the constraint is far outweighed by the productivity benefits.
How Organizations Use Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- •TerraForm Tech — Treats Salesforce as their enterprise PaaS for any internal application that needs CRM-style data, security, and automation.
- •NovaScale — Built multiple custom apps on the Lightning Platform PaaS without ever managing infrastructure.
- •CodeBridge — Trains developers on PaaS concepts to help them understand Salesforce's architectural model.