Platform as a service, managed offerings such as Azure SQL Database and App Service in which the provider looks after the infrastructure and operating system.
Also called platform as a service.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
AZ-305AZ-104AZ-900DP-900SC-900
Each book explains PaaS in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Azure SQL Database
Platform-as-a-service database offered as a single database or in an elastic pool, sized up to 4 TB or 128 TB on Hyperscale. SQL Agent, CLR and queries across databases aren't available.
- App Service
Managed PaaS hosting for web apps and Web App for Containers, run in a sandbox without OS access. Deployment slots and autoscale start at the Standard tier.
- Provider
The organisation that shares data in OpenSharing. Recipients also see a provider as a Unity Catalog securable, from which shares can be mounted as catalogs.
- OS
Operating system, which you manage yourself on IaaS VMs. PaaS offerings like App Service do not expose it.
Related terms
- Azure Private Link
Azure capability placing PaaS services such as Azure Storage behind a private endpoint in your VNet. Traffic stays on the Microsoft backbone with no public IP involved, though VNet and DNS configuration are required.
- Microsoft peering
Routing domain on ExpressRoute that reaches public endpoints of Azure PaaS and Microsoft 365 using public IP prefixes you own. Circuits created since August 2017 advertise nothing until you attach a route filter.
- Peering Service
Optimised internet routing between an ISP and Microsoft. It neither assigns private IPs to PaaS resources nor makes access to them private.
- Private Link service
A service of your own, placed behind the frontend IP of a Standard Load Balancer, that consumers connect to via private endpoints. Azure PaaS services such as Azure SQL Database do not need one.
- Shared responsibility model
Describes who looks after what in the cloud. Data, accounts and devices are always the customer's job; physical hosts, networks and datacentres are always Microsoft's; the remaining duties move depending on IaaS, PaaS or SaaS.