Tech Report – Moving from IaaS to PaaS: Why, How, and What to Expect

It’s no secret that the cloud has revolutionized how companies use and manage their IT resources. The era of on-premise data centers and physical servers is long gone. With cloud computing, organizations can now access storage, software, and computing power directly through the Internet.

Beyond its flexibility, the cloud stands out for its efficiency, security, and versatility along with its adaptable business models such as pay-as-you-go and consumption-based pricing. We explored this topic in greater depth in our article Increase Efficiency, Security, and Performance with Cloud Development. Feel free to check it out for a more detailed overview.

There are several options to choose from when it comes to cloud computing services, and no single solution fits every business. The right model is the one that best aligns with your organization’s specific needs. Generally, cloud services fall into three main categories: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

In this article, we’ll focus on migrating from IaaS to PaaS, supported by real customer examples. When does it make sense to move to PaaS, and what benefits can you expect from such a transition? Keep reading to find out.

IaaS vs. PaaS: How Do They Complement Each Other, and How Do They Differ?

Although often compared, Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) address distinct needs while remaining fully compatible.

IaaS: Maximum Flexibility and Control

Infrastructure as a Service provides on-demand access to essential IT infrastructure components such as virtualization, servers, storage, and networking. This model offers the highest level of control over your IT environment and most closely resembles traditional on-premises infrastructure.

With IaaS, you are responsible for managing the operating system, runtime environment, and data. This makes it a natural first step for IT teams transitioning from an on-premises setup to the cloud.

PaaS: Easier Application Development with Less to Manage

Platform as a Service takes things a step further by providing all the hardware and software components required to build and deploy cloud-based applications. With PaaS, companies can focus entirely on developing and managing their applications without the burden of maintaining the underlying infrastructure.

PaaS accelerates development, testing, and deployment, making these processes faster, simpler, and more cost-effective. It also reduces the amount of code developers need to write, as middleware (such as databases and development environments) and hardware infrastructure are handled by the PaaS provider.

So, when should you choose PaaS? → Always (when possible!)

By default, the PaaS approach is by far the most advantageous option. Whether you choose a solution closely integrated with your cloud provider or a more portable one that avoids infrastructure management altogether, you’ll gain several key benefits:

• Significant time savings on maintenance, updates, and implementation.
• Greater focus on the commercial aspects, scalability, and development of your product or service application, making this model an excellent choice for growth-oriented teams.
• Improved portability, since containerizing components helps reduce heavy dependence on a single cloud provider.

What Are the Benefits of PaaS?

Migrating from an IaaS model to PaaS can be especially relevant depending on your organization’s level of maturity and technological goals. Here are the main benefits to consider:

1. Simplicity and Time Savings: With PaaS, your company no longer needs to manage infrastructure or spend time on technical maintenance as everything is handled by the provider. This allows your teams to fully focus their energy on development and innovation.
2. Cost Reduction: While IaaS offers flexibility, it often requires more management and technical expertise from your internal IT team, leading to higher costs related to administration, monitoring, and security. By leveraging standardized technologies, PaaS becomes a more cost-effective option over time.
3. Faster Deployment: PaaS provides ready-to-use environments, frameworks, and tools that enable developers to start building new features or applications quickly and efficiently.
4. Automatic Updates and Built-In Security: With PaaS, updates are managed by the provider, who also handles security patches and vulnerability management. This reduces both workload and cognitive load for developers, minimizes the risk of oversight, and, most importantly, strengthens your overall security posture.

If your company is looking for greater simplicity and speed (particularly when your needs rely on standard, widely available technologies) migrating from IaaS to PaaS can be a highly strategic and relevant move. It’s a step toward efficiency and innovation.

IaaS remains valuable for organizations with highly specific or atypical requirements that demand greater flexibility, control, and autonomy. However, a hybrid approach can often offer the best of both worlds, combining the strengths of each model. A well-designed cloud architecture will help clarify your strategy and position each component effectively, ensuring your environment is tailored to your goals and optimized for maximum benefits.

How to Successfully Migrate from IaaS to PaaS?

Transitioning from an IaaS model to PaaS is not a simple technical shift, it’s a structured project that requires preparation, a solid methodology, and ongoing monitoring. Here are the key steps to maximize your chances of success:

1. Analyze Your Needs and Current Environment: Before beginning any migration, conduct a comprehensive inventory of your systems. What applications are in use? What technological dependencies and business constraints exist? This assessment will help determine whether PaaS truly aligns with your strategic objectives and identify which systems are compatible with the new model.
2. Develop a Migration Plan and Choose the Right PaaS Provider: The leading providers include Microsoft (Azure), Google (GCP), and Amazon (AWS). However, many other vendors now leverage Kubernetes technologies to offer PaaS solutions as well. To make the best choice, it’s crucial to:
   • Verify technological compatibility (languages, frameworks, databases, etc.).
   • Evaluate short- and long-term costs.Consider scalability, security, and regulatory compliance requirements specific to your industry.
   • Prepare a preliminary plan and high-level assessment of the effort required to complete the migration.
3. Adapt Your Application Architecture: Not all applications are ready to migrate as-is. Some may require adjustments to integrate properly within a PaaS environment. Adopting a modular architecture based on APIs and microservices will allow you to fully leverage the flexibility and scalability of the cloud.
4. Test and Validate: Before completing the full transition, conduct thorough performance, security, and compatibility tests. These validations help you identify potential issues early and fine-tune your configurations to ensure a smooth, reliable migration.
5. Migrate Gradually: A “big bang” migration approach can be risky. Instead, opt for a progressive migration, start with pilot applications before extending the transition to your entire application portfolio.
   • Setting up a transition architecture requires additional effort but provides an extra layer of security to ensure the migration’s success. It’s worth assessing whether this approach is right for your context. One effective method is to deploy a load balancer in front of the application to distribute traffic between two system instances during the transition phase.
6. Strengthen Data Security and Governance: Migration should always include careful consideration of access management, sensitive data protection, and regulatory compliance requirements (such as GDPR or Law 25). Ensuring a strong governance framework from the start will help maintain trust, transparency, and long-term security across your cloud environment.
7. Continuously Optimize: Migration is not an end in itself. Once your applications are running on PaaS, it’s essential to monitor performance, fine-tune configurations, and leverage new features as they become available. Continuous improvement will help you maximize efficiency and maintain long-term value.cessus au fil du temps.

Case Study: Digital Health Sector

One of our clients in the digital health sector (who had developed a custom software platform for healthcare professionals) was facing significant performance issues, including slow page loading, system errors, and timeouts. They also needed to train their internal development team on performance optimization and advanced Azure Cloud configuration.

Our Intervention

Uzinakod quickly identified the root causes and provided a detailed diagnosis and set of recommendations to help modernize their infrastructure. The source of the issues was traced to specific IaaS configuration limitations.

After resolving the immediate performance problems and pinpointing the underlying causes, we developed a migration roadmap from IaaS to PaaS. This new approach not only eliminated part of the management burden for internal teams but also simplified and streamlined their cloud ecosystem.

The Results

• Time savings: Operational complexity was significantly reduced.
• Increased productivity: A complete overhaul of their CI/CD model, optimized for PaaS, boosted development efficiency.
• Simplified scalability: Automation through configurable parameters made scaling faster and easier.
• Lower operational costs: Automatic horizontal scaling reduced infrastructure expenses and resource waste.

Conclusion

Migrating from IaaS to PaaS is a strategic move that brings greater simplicity, agility, and speed while also optimizing costs and enhancing security. As shown in our digital health case study, this transition requires careful planning and structured support, but the benefits are both tangible and measurable.

Considering a migration from IaaS to PaaS? Our experts can help you evaluate your current environment and design a tailored roadmap to guide your transition.

Contact us today to discuss how Uzinakod can help you make the shift with confidence.