As part of their application platform strategies, enterprise architects should become familiar with platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings. PaaS is one of the multiple categories of offerings that fly under the vague and often ill-used banner of "cloud computing." If nothing more, architects need a basic understanding of PaaS so that they can position and prioritize it within their technology watch lists. Some will find reason to pursue deeper PaaS investigation now: PaaS offerings are ready for initial experimentation and, with appropriate risk management, successful pilots may proceed on to production deployment.