Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) has completely transformed application development and delivery for federal agencies. With this agencies are modernizing internal and external agency constituent experiences and delivering innovative solutions faster for today’s increasingly complex missions. 

According to the General Services Administration (GSA), “PaaS refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications.” It’s designed to make application creation easier for developers; it also eliminates the need to set up or manage the underlying infrastructure needed for development. 

Today, many agencies, including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), use PaaS for a range of activities including integration services and connecting applications regardless of their location. However, agencies are learning that PaaS can do so much more than just data management and integration. Recently, agencies have begun to use PaaS for automating processes as agencies develop, deploy, and update software and applications.  

“The use of PaaS for DevOps has increased IT’s agility and its ability to quickly experiment,” explained David Knox, Group Vice President for Public Sector Software Sales, Oracle, in a recent whitepaper.

“Agencies are using PaaS to create better and more repeatable DevOps processes, leading to faster changes across the enterprise. Because PaaS automates many DevOps tasks, it allows developers to release new versions of software faster. End users don’t have to wait for months and months to get what they want or need – and a lot of times what they’re asking for is extremely critical to the agency’s mission. This ability to do agile development and release is very critical to the experience of more frequent and faster delivery of new functionality.” An added benefit is the time and resources agencies save when using PaaS. When IT workers are freed from repetitive tasks, they can then focus on more mission-critical activities.

IT modernization isn’t just a one and done process for federal agencies. It’s a commitment to continuous improvement – as well as the digital transformation as a whole – and PaaS makes this possible. This helps agencies go beyond data management and integration services, allowing agencies to leverage their investment in infrastructure while embracing new technology. 

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