Salesforce.com recently consolidated Heroku’s leadership position in the Platform as a Service space by announcing Heroku Enterprise for Java, a component of the Salesforce.com platform that streamlines the development and deployment of enterprise-grade Java applications. Heroku Enterprise For Java provides developers with a pre-packaged Java solution that can be provisioned with the click of a mouse. Whereas traditional models of Java development require the coordination of a constellation of resources including source-code control systems, integration servers, load balancers, test and staging environments and in-memory caching systems, Heroku Enterprise for Java delivers a unified infrastructure for Java development and testing.
The basic premise of Enterprise for Java is to simplify the process of Java development by reducing the number of steps required for deployment as well as expanding the range of development options. Heroku’s chief operating officer Orin Teich remarked that Heroku Enterprise for Java “can bring 80 [development and deployment] steps down to four,” assuming a high quality implementation of the application.
Heroku Enterprise for Java features the following components:
•Complete Java stack
•Heroku runtime and tools
•Support for core Java Development Kit, Java Virtual Machine, JDK 7 and JDK 8
•Memcache for session management
•Postgres for relational data management
•Separate environments for development and staging
•Support for Eclipse
•Direct deployment of WAR files
•Enterprise-grade support
Teich elaborated on the innovation of the Heroku Enterprise for Java platform as follows:
“Enterprise developers have been looking for a better way to easily create innovative applications without the hassle of building out a back-end infrastructure. With Heroku Enterprise for Java, developers get all the benefits of developing in Java along with the ease of using an open, cloud platform in a single click.”
Heroku did support Java development previously, along with Node.js, Scala, Clojure and Python and PHP. However, the Enterprise for Java Platform is designed to expand the platform’s appeal to large-scale enterprises in addition to startups and small to medium size businesses. Meanwhile, Salesforce is working hard to integrate its Force.com platform with Heroku through Force.com Canvas, which enables applications coded in other languages into the Force.com platform. Because Salesforce’s Force.com platform is coded in its proprietary APEX language, Force.com Canvas steers the company in the direction of allowing applications built on the Heroku platform to pull metadata from the Salesforce Force.com infrastructure.
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