Music is almost always greater than the sum of its parts. As good as one instrument sounds in isolation, when it’s joined by others the magic starts to happen.

Oracle’s Dain Hansen says that cloud services are the same, and Platform as a Service is the conductor of this epic performance.

The idea here is that by combining your services and taking a holistic approach to cloud computing you are, in effect, preparing yourself to enjoy a transformation of your business.

The orchestra is playing together, they’re all in tune and the result sounds amazing. Hansen says that companies taking a more piecemeal approach to cloud services will see some benefits, but not a revolution.

Hansen is however keen to point out that there’s no entirely cloud-based IT system yet. He says that’s 10 years away, but right now his vision is for cloud-based systems to work in harmony - back to music again - with those based on-premises. Companies have invested a lot in their infrastructure and software solutions, so it’s going to take a while to phase out in-house hardware and move everything to the cloud. It’s quite clear, however, that Hansen can see the day when everything is a service coming soon.

It’s crucial then that companies prepare for their migration by picking the right PaaS systems. For the conductor to work at their best, they need the best musicians after all. A good PaaS system will allow a variety of services to integrate together, say SaaS and IaaS solutions. Businesses will then benefit from virtualized processes while keeping their standard and tools as they are now.

Hansen is realistic though, he admits that some solutions in the cloud might not offer exactly what a business needs, and perhaps not what it got with bespoke, on-premises software. To counter this businesses can use application development cloud services to deploy their own custom code that broaden and customise the functionality of their SaaS applications. In short, to fine tune the orchestra’s performance to perfection.

Businesses are fighting for survival, and a strong cloud platform is the system through which they can transform, compete and ultimately win in their field.

If you’re in the dark about what types of PaaS are available for your business, Oracle has a PaaS guide which helps you understand all of the advantages PaaS can bring. You can download a free copy from their site.

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