PaaS + IaaS: Heroku and AWS for Cloud-Native Enterprise Agility

Summary

Modern enterprises can combine AWS IaaS infrastructure scale with Heroku’s managed PaaS to reduce operational work and developer cognitive load while retaining control for specialized workloads. Heroku supports Git-based deployment, managed services including Apache Kafka and Heroku Postgres, polyglot applications, and isolated environments such as Private Spaces and Shield Private Spaces. In Salesforce’s example, five applications serving more than 76,000 employees used Heroku to cut expense approval time from two days to two hours and recover $2 million in unused licenses. The architecture also combines Heroku AppLink, Heroku Connect, Heroku Fir’s OpenTelemetry support, and managed Dynos, while AWS remains the stated choice for highly specialized AI training requiring raw GPU access.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Heroku’s managed PaaS handles OS patching, security updates, and routine maintenance, allowing developers to focus on application business logic rather than infrastructure configuration.

2. 2

   Salesforce’s Slack Approvals app reduced expense approval time from two days to two hours, while the Task Hub app helped recover $2 million in unused software licenses.

3. 3

   Heroku Fir provides native OpenTelemetry support for traces, metrics, and logs; AWS is positioned for highly specialized custom AI model training that needs raw GPU access.