PasS (platform as a service) is expected to be worth an estimated $2.9 billion by 2016 according to Gartner.

The analyst giant predicts the 900 million increase from 2011 figures as the market expands in countries including Japan and the US and technology matures.

The PaaS market is still heavily competitive within itself and with main rival SaaS, the rapid growth over the next four years will be fuelled by fierce competition says Gartner, as cloud providers and enterprise software supplies fight for market dominance.

Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner, said: “PaaS is where the battle between suppliers and products is set to intensify the most.”