What is Platform as a Service (PaaS) primarily used for?

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is primarily designed to support application development by providing a managed environment in which developers can build, test, deploy, and manage applications without the complexity of managing the underlying infrastructure. This allows developers to focus on writing code and developing features, while the PaaS provider handles the servers, storage, networking, and other resources needed to run applications.

PaaS typically includes tools and services that facilitate development processes, such as development frameworks, databases, and middleware, which streamline workflows and enhance productivity. By abstracting the hardware and software layers, PaaS enables faster development cycles and easier scaling of applications as they grow.

Other options like providing infrastructure for SaaS applications or hosting data storage services do not encapsulate the primary purpose of PaaS, which is to enhance and support the application development lifecycle. Additionally, while customer support to developers is important, it is not the core function of PaaS, which is mainly about providing a platform for seamless application development and management.