5 Private PaaS Players to Watch Out For!

Till a couple of years ago, Private PaaS was considered to be an oxymoron. In many discussion panels and debates, I have heard customers question the value of a Private PaaS. But it is very different today. As PaaS became one of the key service models of the Cloud, both the enterprises and the infrastructure service providers realized the power of Private PaaS.Private PaaS was initially perceived as just a set of VMs running either .NET or Java. But as PaaS on the Public Cloud matured to become polyglot and started to abstract some of the core services like databases and other middleware, the potential of PaaS became very evident. Realizing this opportunity, there is a set of players who started to build niche Private PaaS offerings.

Here is a list of companies who are focused on the Private PaaS –

Apprenda – This company was started primarily to offer .NET based Private PaaS that can run on physical infrastructure, Private Cloud or the Public Cloud. Apprenda takes a shot at Microsoft and also VMware by targeting the Cloud Foundry stack. With Microsoft Windows Server 2012 supporting Windows Azure Services, it will be interesting to see how Apprenda positions itself.

ActiveState Stackato – ActiveState embraced Cloud Foundry wholeheartedly to build a polyglot PaaS that can run on Private and Public Clouds. Stackato is available on AWS and HP Cloud for the developers to get started. As the Community Lead for Python, ActiveState is investing in Cloud Foundry to make Python the first class citizen. But the interesting fact is that Cloud Foundry is still in beta and VMware is not disclosing the plans on how it may commercialize it. If VMware decides to integrate Cloud Foundry into the vFabric stack and makes it an end-to-end offering for the enterprises, it will start to conflict with the business interest of ActiveState.

Red Hat OpenShift – Red Hat acquired Makara to build the polyglot PaaS called OpenShift. A few months ago, Red Hat has open sourced OpenShift under the OpenShift Origin program. Based on my observations, Red Hat is keen on taking OpenShift to the enterprises by positioning it as the only JEE PaaS. With its investments in OpenStack, OpenShift may have tighter integration with the Private Cloud. Red Hat will also leverage its relationship with the customers who bought RHEV solution to virtualize their datacenters.

CumuLogic – This company started as a Java PaaS and claims to be backed by James Gosling, father of Java. For me, Cumulogic seems to be what Apprenda aims to be for the .NET world. Given that there are not many Java PaaS offerings out there, CumuLogic stands a good chance as the enterprise Private PaaS. CumuLogic may have to deal with Cloud Foundry, which is pushing Spring framework to the enterprise developers. Red Hat OpenShift may be another big competitor for CumuLogic as Red Hat is claiming to be the only JEE PaaS provider.

CloudBees – At the first look, CloudBees looks exactly as yet another Java PaaS. With the same claims as CumuLogic, there is no differentiating factor for this PaaS offering. CloudBees is commercially available on AWS across US EAST and EU regions. Like other Java PaaS vendors, CloudBees will have to deal with Cloud Foundry, OpenShift and other polyglot PaaS players including Heroku and AppFog on the Public Cloud.

The Private PaaS space is heating up! We have wait and watch to see who will win the enterprise PaaS battle.

- Janakiram MSV, Chief Editor, CloudStory.in