Category: Jelastic

Jelastic, the Platform as Infrastructure vendor, recently announced an update to its combined PaaS-IaaS offering for Java, Ruby and PHP marked by the addition of performance, scalability and security functionality. The new version (version 1.9.3) features enhanced garbage collection features, PHP optimization, automated scaling of PHP hosts to designated limits and more granular database and application access functionality. Because the IaaS platform is indigenous to Jelastic, the solution boasts one of the tightest integrations of PaaS and IaaS in the industry with key differentiators that include speed of deployment, maximum application density and optimal application performance. Version 1.9.3 also features billing functionality geared toward cloud service providers in line with the company’s business model of selling to enterprises, OEMs and cloud service providers. Jelastic’s Platform as Infrastructure solution represents yet another example of the co-implication of PaaS and IaaS, as illustrated most recently by the partnership between CloudBees and Verizon whereby CloudBees stands to complement Verizon’s embryonic IaaS platform.

Platform as a Service vendor Jelastic announced the availability of PHP hosting alongside its Java-based PaaS functionality on Tuesday. Jelastic is unique within the PaaS space because of its focus on rendering its technology available to Service Providers that in turn deliver cloud platforms for their customers. With its announcement of PHP support, Jelastic continues the trend within the PaaS space towards polyglot compatibility marked by the ability to support multiple scripting languages and database platforms. Jelastic’s platform boasts features such as ease of deployment, automated vertical scaling, high performance horizontal scaling, high security for server nodes and support for SQL databases such as MariaDB, PostgresSQL and MySQL and NoSQL platforms MongoDB and CouchDB. Jelastic currently partners with service providers in multiple geographies such as ServInt (U.S.), Rusonyx (Russia), dogado (Germany), Layershift (UK), Tsukaeru (Japan), Planeetta (Finland) and Websolute in Brazil. The company currently claims 30,000 Beta and paid users worldwide.

At the 2012 Parallels Summit, Jelastic announced its Platform as a Service offering of the same name will exit beta and become generally available in March 2012. Geared toward Java applications, Jelastic is offered through the U.S. and German hosting partners ServInt and dogado respectively. Jelastic’s availability through hosting partners means that customers need not manage complex installations of the Jelastic PaaS platform. In a manner similar to AWS, customers can deploy a new cloud environment in seconds with a few clicks of the mouse. Jelastic’s configuration technology handles automated connections between a customer’s server instances and the software stack selected within the hosting environment.

Key features of Jelastic include the following:

• Capability to “run and scale any Java application with no code changes required.”
• The flexibility to select customized software stack groupings such as Tomcat, Glassfish, Jetty and JBoss Java application servers and SQL (MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL) or NoSQL (MongoDB, CouchDB) database platforms.
• A utility pricing model that charges on the basis of RAM and CPU consumption instead of machine size.
• Pricing in units of 128 MB, called cloudlets, of $0.02 per cloudlet per hour from ServInt, and 0.016 euro per cloudlet per hour from dogado.
• Ease of deployment including no installation and autoscaling.

Jelastic’s utility pricing model is revolutionary within the PaaS landscape and leverages its technology for automatically allocating resources in relation to consumption, allowing partners Servint and dogado to charge for usage alone. ServInt COO Christian Dawson commented on Jelastic’s utility pricing model by noting: “We think the near-utility approach we’re taking with Jelastic on pricing and provisioning is going to break the platform-as-a-service industry wide open. The product is miles ahead of its competitors on technological features, and now we’re adding game-changing, customer-friendly pricing to the mix.” Jelastic Beta customers will enjoy two weeks of free service following the March launch date for the paid service.

Jelastic’s announcement comes days after CloudBees revealed details of AnyCloud, which allows customers to deploy the AnyCloud PaaS across multiple hosting environments. Meanwhile, ActiveState’s Stackato recently announced a new release featuring the ability to deploy applications to private and public clouds as the battle for market share in the PaaS space intensifies.