Dive Brief:

• Workday plans to enter the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) market, opening up its Workday Cloud Platform to customers, partners, independent software vendors and developers, according to a blog by Workday co-founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri.

• Bhusri says the decision was based on customer requests for a more open platform. "They want to use Workday as a cloud backbone that supports cohesive, digital workflows across multiple business applications — reflective of how their people work and how their businesses operate in today's hyper-connected, real-time world," according to Bhusri.

• The goal is to enable customers and partners to build custom extensions and applications that can enhance what organizations are able to accomplish with Workday, according to Bhusri.

Dive Insight:

Workday says the move is a way to increase value for customers. PaaS allows developers and companies to host and deploy applications more easily, often allowing them to improve the speed of developing an app. While some companies hesitate to open their platforms, companies like Workday that have matured may find renewed customer interest and new revenue streams by doing so.

As more companies build custom applications, demand for PaaS has grown. According to third quarter data released by Synergy Research Group last fall, database, IoT and analytics PaaS segments see growth of 100% or more each year.