VMware positions Java for the cloud
EMC VMware on Tuesday is introducing its cloud computing platform for Java development, which relies on technologies from the company’s SpringSource division.
The VMware Cloud Application Platform leverages the popular Spring Framework for Java development and the newly branded vFabric product set, which features pre-existing SpringSource products offering capabilities such as data management, messaging, and dynamic load balancing. The 2.5 million users of Spring will be eyed as initial users of the platform.
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“At the end of the day, we feel we’re providing a very legitimate path to this cloud computing architecture of the future for Java,” said Shaun Connolly, EMC VMware’s vice president of products. Until now, there had not been a clear path to the cloud for Java developers, he said.
Applications on the VMware cloud platform can share information with underlying infrastructure to boost software performance, quality of service, and infrastructure utilization, according to VMware. Users can deploy vFabric inside a data center or within public clouds such as VMforce. Also, vFabric can be deployed at a VMware vCloud service provider such as Savvis.
VMware anticipates its Java cloud platform being used for deployment of rich Web applications or for application integration.
Components of vFabric include the following technologies:
* tc server, an enterprise version of the Apache Tomcat Java server
* GemFire data management software
* RabbitMQ messaging server, for communicating between applications inside and outside the data center
* ERS (Enterprise Ready Server), which is an enterprise version of the Apache Web server featurjng dynamic load balancing
* Hyperic, for application performance management
“The benefits of our VMware vFabric is these are very lightweight components,” Connolly said. “At the end of the day, developers want a nice elastic fabric and that’s why we chose the name vFabric,” he said. VMware’s Java cloud platform is akin to Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform for Microsoft-based developers, Connolly said.
VMware’s cloud platform is aimed at the private cloud market, said analyst Karin Kelley, of the 451 Group. “They’re basically building up their middleware stack to support the enterprise private cloud for Java apps and they’re really targeting the private cloud market,” she said.
VMware VFabric can run on top of the company’s vSphere virtualization technology, which supplies automated provisioning and configuring, Connolly said. RabbitMQ, Hyperic, and GemFire technologies were gained through acquisitions. SpringSource itself was acquired by EMC VMware last year.
Spring and VMware Application Platform Services are available for download. VMware anticipates selling vFabric-based services, with prices beginning at $500 per CPU.
VMware will roll out VMware Cloud Application Platform at the VMworld conference in San Francisco.
