Yesterday AppFog (previous CloudAve coverage), formerly known as PHPFog, announced that they are adding support for Java. With the addition Java support, they can now target enterprise developers who still believe in Java over the modern day languages. Along with Java, AppFog now support PHP, Ruby and Node.js. AppFog has a dual strategy in the space. On one hand, they are adding support to multiple languages on their service and, on the other side, they are also playing a critical role in the CloudFoundry ecosystem. Even though I think it is smart for them (and their investors) to take this multi-pronged strategy, I will be really keen to see how this plays out in the next two years. They cannot continue this strategy forever and, soon, there will come a time when they will be forced to decide on which way they want to go.
My POV a.k.a. My Rant
Please keep in mind that this rant is not against AppFog but against most (well, all) the players in the PaaS space. As I have told earlier in this blog, I don’t see much differentiation between the various PaaS providers. I see a good distinction between the hosted model of Heroku and the CloudFoundry model, which lets people deploy the PaaS layer on any infrastructure. But when you see from a developer perspective, there is absolutely no differentiation between various players. Yeah right!! They can point out to minor feature differentiation but I am talking in terms of the big picture, including business model innovation. What is there in their offerings that will make a completely rational developer select one service over another? AppFog and Heroku talks about differentiation in terms of user experience. But, ladies and gentlemen, I hear the same from every other PaaS vendor too.
I am keen to hear from both vendors and users on this topic. From vendors, I want to hear what they are doing that is unique or, using the words of Steve Jobs, “insanely great”. From the perspective of users, including business leaders, IT (yes, IT) and developers, what they expect from a PaaS service. I would love to hear what else can vendors do that will make PaaS, the future of Cloud Services.
Related articles
- Java PaaS (gevaperry.typepad.com)
- AppFog raises $8M to host powerful web apps in the cloud (venturebeat.com)
- AppFog lands $8M for PHP PaaS (gigaom.com)
- Remember one-language PaaS? Heroku adds Python (gigaom.com)
- Java developers, meet Heroku (gigaom.com)
- Cloud Foundry adds PHP, Python; AppFog now a user (gigaom.com)
- Free Stuff: Java PaaS with CumuLogic (rickvanover.wordpress.com)
Full disclosure – I’m from Zend and leading the team developing phpcloud.com
If talking about development I wonder what do you think about phocloud.com and Zend developer cloud?
Hey Krishnan,
I love the rant and actually do believe that it starts looking quite crazy seeing all the Java PaaS wannabes getting out there without being able to sufficiently articulate what makes them different.
We at http://Jelastic.com believe that we are indeed much different from anyone else both from technology and indeed business model.
From technology perspective, we are pretty much the only ones who provide absolutely standard Java app servers (Tomcat, GlassFish, Jetty…) and databases (MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB…), full access to all configuration files, ability to upload any libraries, use any ports, etc. – so *no limitations*, no need to learn the new platform, no lock-in, *no code changes required*.
Just specify what you want, upload your Java package and be up and running within a few minutes. See a bunch of demos at http://www.youtube.com/user/JelasticCloud in which we deploy popular Java applications like Alfresco, OpenCMS, jForum, etc. I would challenge other players to get to the same level of compatibility.
From business model perspective, we are the only ones who enable the global ecosystem of hosting service providers to deliver the platform instead of doing it all ourselves (or giving developers the bits and expecting them to set it all up on Amazon). ServInt in the US and Host Europe in Europe are already offering Jelastic from their datacenters (Heroku is still US East only so are, as far as I understand, all other competing Java PaaS services). We are rapidly working on adding more hosters to our partner network.
Dmitry