What Is a Platform? Definition from SearchServerVirtualization

What is a platform?

In IT, a platform is any hardware or software used to host an application or service. An application platform, for example, consists of hardware, an OS and coordinating programs that use the instruction set for a particular processor or microprocessor. In this case, the platform creates a foundation that ensures object code executes successfully.

When purchasing software, it’s important to know what platform the software was written for.

Some software is platform-specific, which means the developers have expressly developed their application program to run on one platform — Windows or Mac, for example.

Software can also be cross-platform, which means the developers intended the object code to be executed on more than one platform — Win/Mac, for example. Software can also be platform-agnostic, which means the software is designed to run on any combination of OS and processor architecture  and incorporates a web browser as part of the underlying platform, for example.

Software developers who want to see how their code behaves on different platforms may use a type of cloud computing called platform as a service, or PaaS. Simply put, the cloud provider hosts different combinations of hardware and software platforms on its own infrastructure and the software developer pays to use them. This frees the developers from having to install in-house hardware and software when developing and testing a new application.

In the enterprise, for example, underlying characteristics that define a server might involve processor type, such as Intel x86 or x64; memory type or performance, such as DDR4; and networking interconnections, such as 1 GigE. The physical characteristics of a server can also include its mounting form factor, such as rack or blade, or a specialty form factor, such as an Open Compute or Open Rack design.

The term platform may also go beyond simply describing the underlying architecture to also include software that is built upon the architecture. For example, the adoption of virtual machines in an enterprise requires a hypervisor platform, such as Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware vSphere