Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is gaining serious traction among web and mobile developers, but as new PaaS providers emerge and existing vendors upgrade their features, it's hard to keep track of what PaaS has to offer. This thorough introduction takes you through the PaaS model from a developer's point of view, and breaks down the types of services that Google App Engine, Windows Azure, Heroku, Cloud Foundry, and others deliver.Whether you're an entrepreneur or part of a large enterprise development team, this book shows you how PaaS can help you focus on innovative applications, rather than spend your time worrying about technical operations.Track the cloud's evolution from IaaS and DevOps to PaaSLearn how PaaS combines the simplicity of shared web hosting with the control of dedicated hostingExplore the benefits of both portable and non-portable PaaS optionsApply best practices for moving legacy apps to PaaS-and understand the challenges involvedWrite new applications for PaaS from scratch with RESTful meta-servicesUse PaaS to build mobile apps with backend services that scaleExamine the core services that each major provider currently offersLearn the situations in which PaaS might not be advantageous