DotCloud’s namesake “next-generation” platform-as-a-service offering has left beta and has entered general availability, adding high availability and scaling options. So what’s so futuristic about DotCloud? The provider is boasting it’s one platform that provides automatically managed development and deployment environments for no fewer than 12 stacks and databases. If that sounds good to you, sign-ups are free, with paid plans starting at $99/month. Here are some more details:
According to DotCloud’s press materials, the modern enterprise developer faces the problem of using standardized technologies to minimize risk when building and running applications. But by combining management and monitoring for various stacks into one platform, it removes the need for expertise in any one scripting language.
The full list of languages and databases supported by DotCloud at launch includes: PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java, Node.JS, MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Solr, MongoDB and PostgreSQL. And those newly available HA and scaling capabilities do exactly what they say on the tin: host your application across several availability zones with automatic failover, and add additional resources for your app on demand as needed, respectively.
Here’s what Solomon Hykes, co-founder and CEO of DotCloud, had to say about the PaaS offering’s value proposition in a prepared statement:
“Cloud computing has had a huge impact on how companies build and manage their infrastructure, but we are still in the early phases of this revolution. With DotCloud, cloud computing and PaaS are making a huge stride forward — for the first time enabling companies to innovate with new development stacks without increasing complexity and cost in their architecture.”
Hykes talks a good game, and no doubt, DotCloud will garner some fans in the cloud ISV world. But with Microsoft Windows Azure recruiting its own platform-as-a-service developer base, can this startup make a dent in the marketplace?
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