An online service provider provides its users with hosted computers, an operating system, and a database management system (DBMS). This allows customers to add their own applications to the hosted services. Which of the following cloud-based offerings is being provided to the users?
a. unified communications as a service (UCaaS)
b. platform as a service (PaaS)
c. infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
d. software as a service (SaaS)

The correct option is B: platform as a service (PaaS)

Explanation:

Platform as a service (PaaS) is regarded as a computing model in the cloud and ensures delivery of both software and hardware tools via a third-party provider. Tools delivered are mostly those that are needed for the development of application and are mostly delivers via the internet to its users. Software and hardware tools are usually hosted in the infrastructure of the PaaS provider host and thus this removes the burden on developers of having to install a physical software or hardware in the development or running of a new application.