Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) and PaaS cloud-based application deployment and management provider AppFog are collaborating to help customers deploy applications on the OpenStack-powered Rackspace Cloud.

AppFog’s role in the partnership is to enable customers to develop and deploy apps to Rackspace Cloud efficiently and cost-effectively with its pay-for RAM approach that gives developers 2GB of RAM free, simply for creating an account. According to the company, AppFog will provide customers with the ability to deploy apps to Rackspace currently running on a different IaaS with zero-code migrations.

AppFog’s solution will be available through the newly launched Rackspace Cloud Tools Marketplace.

“As a market leader and a powerful force within OpenStack, Rackspace is a valuable option for developers looking for a reliable, scalable and secure IaaS option,” said AppFog CEO Lucas Carlson in a prepared statement. “With cloud databases and cloud servers powered by OpenStack, we can be assured that our efforts support open standards, protect against vendor lock-in and enable developers to deploy on public or private OpenStack-based clouds.”

AppFog is multi-language PaaS that supports Java, .NET, Node, Python, Ruby, PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, Postgres and others.

The Rackspace Cloud Tools Marketplace gives channel partners, developers and end customers access to a catalog of third-party applications designed for the Rackspace Cloud. By using OpenStack developing solutions for Rackspace Cloud, AppFog hopes to provide customers with increased flexibility and help them avoid vendor lock-in.

By partnering to get listed in the PaaS provider’s marketplace, AppFog will have access to a wider range of cloud partners and customers. Customers will be able to “browse, review and connect to cloud solutions focused on management, monitoring, application deployment, security and a host of other areas.”

“AppFog provides developers with a trusted platform for application development and deployment and we look forward to ongoing collaboration to have these capabilities available to our customers,” said Ven Shanmugam, senior manager of corporate strategy at Rackspace, in a prepared statement.