Category: Platform as a Service

Informatica Launches PaaS For Data Integration In Latest Release Of Informatica Cloud

This week, Informatica revealed the latest edition of its data integration software Informatica Cloud in the form of Informatica Cloud Spring 2012. Informatica Cloud Spring 2012 features the Informatica Cloud Developer Edition, a platform as a service for data integration that empowers developers to create connectors between on-premise or cloud-based applications and the Informatica Cloud. Whereas Informatica Cloud comes pre-built with connectors to select databases and applications, the Informatica Cloud Developer Edition promises to extend Informatica Cloud’s universe of connectivity by giving developers the tools to build connections between their enterprise data repositories and the Informatica Cloud data integration platform.

Connectors currently available on Informatica Marketplace feature applications such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce, Twitter and Zuora. The Informatica Cloud Developer Edition provides a data integration platform for developers to build connections as outlined in Informatica’s press release below:

Informatica Cloud Developer Edition enables SIs and ISVs to build, customize and deliver native connectivity to any cloud or on-premise business and social applications that have published Web Services APIs. With the new Cloud Connector Toolkit, developers have access to a Java-based API to quickly create high-performance connectors that run as sources or targets within Informatica Cloud

As long as the relevant application targeted for connection to the Informatica Cloud has a “published Web Services API”, developers can leverage a Java-based API provided by the Informatica Cloud Developer Edition to “create high-performance connectors that run as sources or targets within Informatica Cloud.” Informatica Cloud Spring 2012 also features Cloud Integration Templates that provide developers with pre-built templates for integrating data between and across select data repositories. The templates can be embedded within applications and then loaded to the Informatica Cloud or published in the Informatica Marketplace.

Connections that developers build between applications using the Informatica Cloud Developer Edition can also be sold in the Informatica Marketplace to like-minded enterprises seeking similar integration tools. Importantly, the Informatica Cloud Developer Edition illustrates the emerging popularity of PaaS solutions. By providing developers with a tool for creating customized data integration connectors between data sets and applications, Informatica Cloud promises to capitalize on a market appetite for platforms that empower enterprises to customize data integration to their own specific business needs. Because those same cloud connectors can be resold, Informatica’s PaaS promises to create an ever-expanding marketplace of reusable tools that expand data integration capabilities with its base product, Informatica Cloud.

Red Hat Open-Sources OpenShift PaaS And Calls For Cloud Without Vendor Lock-In

It’s official. Red Hat has open-sourced the code to its Platform as a Service (PaaS) product OpenShift as of Monday. The commercial Linux distributor open-sourced the code for its OpenShift Origin product under an Apache License version 2. Developers can now download OpenShift Origin for free and deploy applications on their laptop or behind a firewall. Developers can also deploy OpenShift Origin on top of OpenStack, the open source IaaS platform that has the support of over 160 organizations including Red Hat itself, which is a Platinum member of the OpenStack Foundation that presides over its governance.

OpenShift Origin is open-sourced within the context of a “meritocratic community project, regardless of developer affiliation.” Red Hat’s commitment to a meritocratic governance model for contributions to OpenShift Origin’s code base recalls the OpenStack Foundation’s pledge of a “technical meritocracy” with respect to OpenStack’s software development.

Red Hat will serve as the principal contributor to OpenShift Origin in the early stages, but invites input from the developer community at large. Red Hat’s wiki on the OpenShift Origin community reminds readers of the company’s historical commitment to “the open source way” as follows:

Red Hat is the initial main contributor to OpenShift Origin, and is the initial donor to the community. Red Hat does not intend to unilaterally dictate roadmaps, to institute self-serving governance models or to censor critical commentary. Please remember, the people who work at Red Hat do so because they also believe in the open source way.

Red Hat underscores its intention not to “unilaterally dictate roadmaps” or “institute self-serving governance models” but rather to foster a development environment marked by “good faith, merit, open development, working community, and well written code.

Red Hat’s blog post announcing the open-sourcing of OpenShift Origin elaborated on its philosophy of meritocratic code development by taking a thinly disguised jab at VMware and its control over the open source Cloud Foundry PaaS platform:

The cloud in general, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and PaaS implementations specifically, should not be vehicles that promote vendor lock-in, nor should they be under the control or “guidance” of vendors. For the cloud to remain open and vibrant, implementations should be truly open, not only in license, but in governance. The OpenShift Origin project sets a high bar for PaaS offerings, developed and governed by developers, for developers.

Here, Red Hat implicitly questions the open-ness of VMware’s Cloud Foundry given the disproportionate influence had by VMware over the Cloud Foundry project. With these notes about the importance of true open source cloud computing, Red Hat appears to be quietly gearing up for a major entry into both the PaaS and IaaS spaces. OpenShift Origin is intended as the product that will lead developers and organizations “upstream” to its commercial variants of OpenShift such as OpenShift Power, which runs on Red Hat’s IaaS platform CloudForms. Moreover, Red Hat’s commentary about IaaS and PaaS platforms that avoid vendor lock-in hint at the beginnings of a marketing platform that positions the Raleigh-based Linux giant as a major player in the OpenStack space.

Amazon Web Services Launches Online Marketplace For Cloud Software

Just when OpenStack appeared to be grabbing the tech blogosphere’s attention with vendor endorsements revealed in conjunction with its Design Summit in San Francisco, Amazon Web Services reminded the cloud computing world of its market share dominance and technological leadership by releasing yet another component to its cloud computing platform. On Thursday, Amazon Web Services announced an online marketplace that allows customers to speedily deploy software from a range of other cloud vendors. Vendors in the AWS Marketplace include 10gen, CA, Canonical, Couchbase, Check Point Software, IBM, Microsoft, SAP AG, and Zend, as well as Drupal, MediaWiki, and WordPress. The AWS Marketplace simplifies access to cloud-based software for customers and thereby promises to offer vendors increased customer awareness of their products. Moreover, customers can benefit from the marketplace’s 1-click technology that simplifies deployment and allows users to try out software for customized trial periods without being confined to 30 or 60 day trial periods that expire and subsequently require expensive subscriptions. Prices vary based on the software vendor although, in the case of open-source software such as WordPress, customers pay only for the additional amount of storage and computing power required of the application.

Key features of the Amazon Web Services marketplace include:

• A centralized collection of software that can be deployed on the Amazon Web Services infrastructure.
• Billing managed by Amazon Web Services for participating software vendors.
• Simplified billing for customers who will now receive one invoice for both hardware and software usage.

The marketplace aptly illustrates Amazon Web Services’s intention to morph into a one stop shopping ground for cloud computing. The AWS Marketplace promises to vault the Seattle-based cloud startup turned behemoth into the de facto initial point of contact for customers seeking to deploy or develop cloud-based software because of its streamlined access to an ecosystem of software products. One critical metric of the marketplace’s success will be how many other cloud and big data vendors make their software available within the AWS Marketplace. PaaS vendors, in particular, may elect to offer their products within the AWS marketplace in an effort to solicit the attention of customers with a combination of IaaS and PaaS cloud computing needs. If this week’s Splunk IPO was any indication, Big data may also become a notable category of vendors for the AWS Marketplace as Big Data appears to have finally arrived in the eyes of investors and tech journalists at large.

ActiveState Produces Video On Migration To Cloud And Private PaaS Stackato

ActiveState recently released a short video highlighting some of the challenges organizations encounter while migrating applications to the cloud, with a corresponding emphasis on the “efficiency, control and security” of private PaaS Stackato. The clip is highly recommended for its astute use of animation to elaborate some of the stakes of deploying a cloud.

PaaS AppFog Announces Compatibility With Citrix’s CloudStack

Just days after Citrix’s stunning decision to open-source its IaaS product CloudStack to the Apache Software Foundation, and turn away from OpenStack as the core technology for its platform, PaaS vendor AppFog declared compatibility with CloudStack. According to AppFog’s press release, “AppFog completed a rigorous verification process to ensure compatibility with Citrix CloudStack™, providing confidence in joint solution compatibility.” The announcement enables CloudStack customers to additionally deploy PaaS AppFog on top of CloudStack’s IaaS platform and thereby increase the diversity of cloud deployments in relation to varying business needs. AppFog’s declaration of compatibility with CloudStack illustrates an increasing trend in the PaaS space marked by the utilization of IaaS platforms for PaaS offerings. The availability of Red Hat’s OpenShift on Amazon Web Services constitutes another case of the co-implication of PaaS and IaaS as does ActiveState’s recent deal to resell its “any language, any cloud, any stack” Stackato product on CloudSigma’s IaaS platform.

PaaS Vendor Engine Yard Unveils Expanded Partner Program For Solution, Technology and IaaS Providers

Today, PaaS vendor Engine Yard revealed details of an expanded partner program for three tracks of partners, namely, (1) Solution Providers, (2) Technology Providers and (3) Infrastructure as a Service providers. The Engine Yard partner program elaborates how Engine Yard will assist partners that contribute to the ecosystem of products and services that surrounds its PaaS platform. Engine Yard hopes that the partner program will uniquely position it to “provide the most robust cloud offerings available to developers” as a result of the way in which its partners collectively enhance the value of its PaaS offering.

The three partner tracks in Engine Yard’s Partner Program are as follows:

Solution Providers

Solution providers are “dev shops, design agencies, consultants and systems integrators” who use the Engine Yard platform as a service to deliver products for their clients. Engine Yard claims over 200 solution providers at present.

Technology Providers

Technology providers are vendors who offer third party software that are either integrated into Engine Yard’s PaaS platform or otherwise serve as platform “enhancements or extensions.” Over 100 technology providers enhance Engine Yard’s platform currently.

Infrastructure Providers

Infrastructure as a Service providers offer Engine Yard within their IaaS offerings as branded solutions for customers seeking a PaaS solution that matches Engine Yard’s “deep expertise in Ruby on Rails and PHP.” Examples of Engine Yard’s Infrastructure Providers include Amazon Web Services and Terremark.

Engine Yard offers partners a variety of technical and sales and marketing support in order to contribute toward their success. In addition to the partner program, Engine Yard announced a startup incubation program that facilitates the movement of “early stage companies from an idea to running cloud-based applications in production easily and cost-effectively.” Participating startups will receive free premium technical support, free development hours and discounts on training and other consulting services from Engine Yard.