Cloud4SOA: an open source multi-PaaS application management and portability solution!

Cloud4SOA is an open-source solution for multi-PaaS search, application management and portability. It brings flexibility and efficiency between multiple platforms, and frees the developer from vendor lock-in.

Cloud4SOA is an upcoming Beta service from the research project of the same name, funded by the EU’s FP7 Programme.  The project set forth to provide an open semantic interoperable framework for Platform as a Service (PaaS) developers and providers, capitalizing on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), lightweight semantics and user-centric design and development principles.

The result - the Cloud4SOA System - supports cloud-based application developers with multi-platform matchmaking, management, monitoring and migration by semantically interconnecting heterogeneous PaaS offerings across different providers that share the same technology. All this is done using an adaptable, intelligent, user-centric web interface.

Cloud4SOA leverages the open APIs of platforms through its “Platform Adapters”, essentially a set of platform-unique proxies between the Cloud4SOA System and the various PaaS platforms it connects to.

Let’s lay out some scenarios that an application developer pushing to the cloud will relate to…

Matchmaking: Cloud4SOA helps the developer find the best optimized platform based on their application requirements, such as technology, functionality, capacity, development support and quality of service.  But this goes beyond the typical search engine (e.g. Google) that would base results on the providers’ marketing or SEO rather than independently verified provider information. Cloud4SOA results are based on developer criteria (application profile) and feedback (performance monitoring).

Management: After choosing a platform, Cloud4SOA acts as a full multi-PaaS manager that covers the complete application lifecycle.  Since Cloud4SOA focuses on adding value (not replacing it), the developer gains the system’s centralized governance between platforms (public or private clouds), while never losing out on the capabilities back at the PaaS offering’s 3rd-party ecosystem or future innovations.

Monitoring: Cloud4SOA complements its multi-PaaS management role with uniformed metrics across all deployed applications, such as latency and status.  This allows the developer to compare and contrast between applications and platforms.  An integrated application service level monitoring system lets the developer know how their pre-defined SLA criteria are keeping up.

Migration: After measuring performance levels, Cloud4SOA becomes a true PaaS portability solution that addresses vendor lock-in, letting the developer migrate both their application and data between private or public platforms of the same underlying technology (e.g. Java to Java, PHP to PHP).

Cloud4SOA is completely open-source and will be available on the GitHub public forge in the coming months, from its Platform Adapters (proxies) to it centralized components, allowing developers to expand the ecosystem by creating new adapters, as well as customize its capabilities to their tailored needs.  It will become a great companion to your PaaS experience!

Come over to our booth at Cloud Expo Europe 2013 in London on January 29th and 30th for a live demo!  And make sure to visit www.cloud4soa.eu for more info!