Platform as a Service in Software Development : Key Success Factors

Despite the popularity of platforms as a source of innovation and the growing market presence of Software as Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) continues to face adoption challenges among software firms. Surprisingly, although this segment of cloud computing technology was first introduced in the mid-2000s and PaaS offerings have proliferated on the market since then, expectations of PaaS have not yet been realized. An examination of the challenges and complexities of PaaS is discussed, and a model with supporting propositions is presented, building on the latest IS literature and the success of other software development initiatives such as Open Source (OS). These propositions include multi-sidedness, openness, scalability, revenue-sharing and proactive governance. Finally, we discuss an approach to operationalizing the model moving forward