What is the difference between CaaS and PaaS?

Both CaaS and PaaS are cloud computing services. However, to understand the differences between the two, you must first understand what each one is and how it works.

A CaaS is a Container as a Service and is considered as a cloud service that is in between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). A container is used as a basic resource for CaaS, instead of using a virtual machine. Software developers rely on CaaS to build secure and easily scalable containerized applications with the help of either on-premises data centers or over the cloud. A good example of a CaaS would be Microsoft Azure.

A PaaS, on the other hand, is defined as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) and is also considered to be a cloud computing model. A PaaS helps software developers to deliver the software and hardware tools required for application development. With a PaaS, users don’t have to install hardware or the software for either developing or running an application since the PaaS provider takes care of hosting the software and hardware on their infrastructure. An example of a PaaS is Google App Engine.

Here are some of the most basic differences between CaaS and PaaS cloud computing services:

• A CaaS is a turnkey way to deploy Docker containers, which requires you to develop the applications separately. A PaaS is an integrated application development and deployment solution.

• CaaS is generally termed as a container platform, while PaaS is more commonly termed as application platforms.

• Containers are applications that lead to more control over delivery models, while PaaS is an operational model. In other words, a PaaS is an application delivery model which is fixed from the service provider’s end.

• In the case of CaaS, developers need to structurally define the space for the packaging and execution from the operating system’s point of view. PaaS however, is a mechanism in which the service provider deploys, hosts, and executes the application for the developers.

• When you integrate PaaS and CaaS in a system, the role of a container is to ensure the quality of that particular delivery. In contrast, the role of the platform is to deliver the capability of application development to the software developer.

• With CaaS, developers need to understand the flow of the operation clearly and also bear the operational overhead. But in the case of PaaS, developers are not responsible for the operational overhead, which enables them to work on the quality of the software more.

• CaaS provides a scope for developers to adjust and change according to their requirements. PaaS however, has a limitation on the operation flexibility since it is dependent upon the vendor offerings.

• CaaS is suitable when you have a specific need where you require more control over the components of the applications resulting in a bit more investment from the IT developer resources point of view. In contrast, PaaS is more suitable for organizations that are comfortable with the public cloud and have a very small IT team, or no IT team at all.