Cloud Application Platforms vs Internal Development Platforms

In this article, let’s understand what CAPs and IDPs are, how they work, and why they are becoming essential in modern software development.

What is a Cloud Application Platform?

A cloud application platform provides a managed application runtime environment for applications, integrating capabilities to manage the life cycle of an application or application component. This means you can deploy, run, and scale your applications without directly handling the underlying infrastructure.

CAPs provides faster delivery, adaptability, and scalability by offering features like serverless computing and facilitating the deployment and execution, to enable teams to focus on building and scaling applications without being distracted.

What is an Internal Development Platform?

Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) are collections of tools, services, automations, and information curated as a product by a dedicated platform team.

The primary goal of an IDP is to enhance developer productivity and autonomy by reducing reliance on operations teams.

Let’s examine their similarities and differences to understand when to choose CAPs over IDPs and vice versa.

The above is taken from Mia Platform’s CAP and IDP blog.

Platforms like Mia-Platform integrate CAP and IDP capabilities, offering a solution for modern cloud development and operations.