A recent announcement from VMware has some companies excited and others shrugging their shoulders. Cloud Foundry, an open source development platform for PaaS services in the growing cloud market, is set to make a big impression on the cloud market at large, at least according to the company.
The idea here is that while PaaS already exists from providers like Microsoft and Amazon, many of their platforms are exclusive and proprietary and prevent developers from using them as they truly want to. VMware hopes that the Cloud Foundry will allow companies to develop their own PaaS options and then try them out on the free Micro Cloud that the company will offer. The plan is then to follow-up with small and big business servers later on in the year.
Detractors say that other companies have already been doing what VMware is introducing a revolutionary and the open source tag is only being included as a way to draw in those who are dissatisfied with their current providers and how they manage PaaS. From VMware’s perspective, however, the open source model is something that is meant to be a way for the cloud community to come together and true leaders in the PaaS market to emerge. Ultimately, the company is going to have to pick a niche, and being a well-positioned hosting company with a reputation for open source compatibility puts them in a good place in the market overall.
Love it or hate it, however, the Cloud Foundry is coming and the company hopes to make excellent consumer gains with its inception – only time will tell if the overall effectiveness of the Foundry outlasts its initial open source appeal in the market.
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