According to VMware’s CEO, Paul Maritz, one of the key principles behind their newest offering, Cloud Foundry, is to give developer “the moral, if not technical equivalent of Linux for the cloud”. Their hope is to use an open-source, PaaS framework to give developers the control the need in what Maritz sees as a changing market.
While the CEO is well aware of the challenges that are presented by others that are currently in the same business as VMware – IBM, Oracle, Dell and Microsoft, to name a few – his focus is split to include those competitors that aren’t yet big players. Maritz sees the current way of operating in the cloud as something that is on the way out, as many enterprises are running older code that is getting in their way of moving from VPS or hybrid cloud to a public cloud option.
Maritz sees the current landscape as bringing about a “developer-led revolt against complexity”. VMware sees developers that are frustrated with trying to force middleware and infrastructure together, and have created Cloud Foundry to address the problem.
Cloud Foundry is design to provide greater functionality than current PaaS options on the market, which Maritz sees as being hampered by a limited amount of framework support. The Cloud Foundry model is one that is meant to be used by the industry, rather than just by VMware, giving enterprises and developers the ability to make it work as they want it to, not as VMware tells them they should.
The service is currently running a pilot project and is scheduled for launch in 2012. While recruiting developers made pose some challenges, Maritz feels the risk is a calculated one that must be undertaken.
Related News:
