Cloud Foundry Overview – What is Cloud Foundry?
Cloud Foundry is an open-source Platform as a service (PaaS) created by virtualization software
company, VMware . Cloud Foundry provides users with a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and
application services, while increasing a user’s ability to built, test, and scale applications.
Benefits of Cloud Foundry
1) Cloud Foundry allows its users to focus strictly on writing applications, instead of worrying
about middleware and infrastructure. In addition, developers have access to high productivity
frameworks, which allows them to build and test future applications from the comfort of their
home computer or laptop.
2) Applications can be created, tested, scaled, and deployed without the need to change any code.
Thus, developers can reduce time to market by shortening their software delivery pipeline and
reducing their application backlog.
3) Cloud Foundry gives its users a choice of cloud deployment, whether that is across a public,
private, or hybrid cloud. In addition, users have a choice of what industry standard framework
to use, as well as a choice of application services. Developers also have access to the Cloud
Foundry Community Open-Source Project.
As one user put it “Cloud Foundry is like a private cloud which manages IT control over the application
environment as well as the capability to include with a business’s own collection of program solutions.
Now developers have a good choice to build their own apps.”
vFabric Cloud Application Platform
Vmware’s vFabric Cloud Application Platform gives developers the tools to streamline the application
and deployment lifecycle in the build, run, and manage phases. These tools include developer tools,
frameworks, application infrastructure monitoring, and in-memory enterprise data management
solutions.
vFabric Cloud Application Platform has become a resource nearly every major IT department uses in
some capacity. Furthermore, Cloud Foundry states on their website “Nearly half of the Global 2000,
including many of the world’s leading retail, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, technology
and public sector clients are vFabric customers.” A primary reason that it has become so widely used is
its ability to give customers access to a cloud that is autonomic and scalable, while freeing up financial
resources.
Although adequate alternatives are available to vFabric, Vmware’s commitment to being an open-
source software leader seems to be a major reason why the majority of the multi-national corporation
juggernauts continue to use their products. Jeff Reed, Application Development Executive with
Logicalls, points out “ One reason I think vFabric is superior to other competitive product suites
is that VMware truly has a culture of “openness” when it comes to development frameworks…A
simple example is VMware vFabric SQLFire’s support for JDBC and ADO.NET connectivity to back-end databases.”
The following video helps break down how vFabric Cloud Application Platform can help solve a
business’s data problems:
The Tough Questions
Many in the IT world took notice when Cloud Foundry was launched last year that its concept deviates
from the primary mission statement of VMware. As InformationWeek notes “What does a cloud-based
development environment have to do with VMware’s primary mission, which is advanced management
of the data center through virtualized operations? What did Cloud Foundry have to do with getting
VMware’s cloud enabling products inside the doors of more service suppliers?
To further this thought, has VMware deviated too far from their stated core competencies? Although
75,000 unique download is no small feat, has demand been less than expected? After all, software such
as MySql receives more downloads in a single day.
All it takes is a glance at statements made by VMware CTO Steve Harrold to see that Cloud Foundry has
been a huge success for the virtualization software company. Although originally unsure if there would
be a demand among developers, Vmware’s 5,000 downloads the first year projection was surpassed in a
few days. It seems safe to say that Cloud Foundry has been a huge success up until this point.
Cloud Foundry Success
Cloud Foundry recently celebrated their one year anniversary, which is being viewed as a huge accomplishment by parent company, VMware. Steve Herrod, VMWare’s CTO, recently reflected on this success by pointing out that Cloud Foundry has become the “Linux of the Cloud”, while working towards becoming the first Multi-Cloud platform.
Another example of Cloud Foundry success is the increased investment opportunities that have come their way. Their newly formed partnership with Ebay’s X.commerce platform is an example of the growing interest in this product.
Job Openings with Cloud Foundry
Platform Engineer Job (Palo Alto, California)
-This is a hands-on engineering job that includes helping to build the infrastructure automation platform that powers Cloud Foundry and working directly with the team that designs and implements the platform.
Program Manager Position (Palo Alto, California)
-Program manager is responsible for helping coordinate the project management, operations, marketing, and engineering department in their efforts to build to Cloud Foundry platform.
Platform and Release Engineer (Shanghai, China)
-Engineer will help build and operate the infrastructure automaton platform from their Shanghai Offices. Additionally, job requirements include ensuring that the release and deployment of the software is done in an efficient manner.
For additional VMware or Cloud Foundry Job Openings, please visit: Cloud Foundry Job Openings
