AppFog PaaS Adds Java Support, Praises Open Source Efforts

Platform-as-a-service provider AppFog is extending its language support with the addition of Java — an apropos announcement for this week’s SpringOne 2GX 2011 conference. The Java PaaS market is increasingly crowded, but Lucas Carlson, founder and CEO of AppFog, said his company’s solution stands apart by offering robust support for additional languages including Ruby, Node.js and especially PHP.

I had the chance to chat briefly with Carlson, who noted competing PaaS providers including Cloudbees, Cumulogic and Jelastic focus exclusively on Java at their peril. The front end of an application is just as important as the back, Carlson said, and developers are really responding to AppFog’s commitment to providing “a top-notch PHP experience” in addition to supporting those other languages.

In the future, Carlson said, AppFog will continue that “everything to everyone” approach to cloud platforms, with planned support for more cloud providers than just Joyent, its primary public cloud partner. (EDIT: AppFog reached out to clarify that while it does support Joyent, the Amazon Web Services cloud is really the main option.)

And on a final note, AppFog couldn’t have happened without the VMware Cloud Foundry open source cloud libraries — Carlson didn’t have enough kind words for the open source community and the good work that it does in pushing cloud technologies forward, and noted it’s really promoting a cloud ecosystem around AppFog.

We’ll keep watching the Java PaaS pool, so make sure to keep watching TalkinCloud.