006. Use of GOV.UK PaaS
Date: 2022-07-18
Status
Accepted
Context
GOV.UK Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud-hosting platform built by the Government Digital Services (GDS). GOV.UK PaaS manages the deployment of Monitor Space Hazards, the backing services it relies on (such as the filesystem and database) and background tasks, such that people with specialised cloud skills aren’t needed.
GOV.UK PaaS uses the open source Cloud Foundry project, and runs on Amazon Web Services.
Decision
The decision to use GOV.UK PaaS was taken in the alpha phase of the service lifecycle. It was only used in earnest during private beta, and along with the decision to use Terraform for IaC, has provided good utility. However as time has progressed and service needs have matured, then breaking out and consuming AWS native services has become more of a concern.
Consequences
On the 12th July 2022 decommissioning of Gov.UK PaaS was announced, so the Service Team have decide to use Amazon Web Services as the new hosting platform.