What are Developers' Preferences on Platform as a Service? : An Empirical Investigation

Platform as a service (PaaS) solutions are changing the way how software is produced, distributed, consumed, and priced. Due to the wide variety of approaches to PaaS and the absence of a formula that represents the drivers of successful platforms, the goal of this paper is to identify developers' preferences on PaaS. An adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis has been performed and was completed by 103 participants. Based on the results, a prioritized list of developers' preferences for PaaS has been created. The results of the survey indicate that, third-party developers' preferences also depend on the phase of the software lifecycle in which they are (Development, Distribution, and Operation).