Public cloud providers offer either infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or software-as-a-service (SaaS). A few are recognized as providing a third type distinct from those two — platform-as-a-service (PaaS). But over the last two years, the distinctions first set out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on different types of cloud have blurred.
Now, an IaaS or SaaS provider that doesn’t also offer a development platform is in danger of losing customers to competitors.
