Java developers, meet Heroku

Heroku, the popular Platform as a Service offering initially for Ruby developers only, now supports Java. Actually, Heroku has added support for both the Node.js framework and the Clojure programming language over the past few months, but Java is in a whole other league. If it’s not the world’s most popular programming language, it’s certainly among the most popular — especially among enterprise developers.

Heroku has been gaining credibility among enterprise developers since becoming part of Salesforce.com in December, and part of courting those developers is providing the languages, tools capabilities that they want. Certainly, though, Java is only part of the journey to woo developers who want to launch their applications in the cloud, as Heroku’s forays into Node.js and Clojure illustrate.

Likewise, PaaS providers of all stripes have been working to expand beyond their legacy developer bases. Just this week, Engine Yard bought PHP PaaS startup Orchestra to complement its Ruby on Rails prowess, and AppFog transitioned to a Cloud Foundry foundation to add support for languages beyond its PHP roots.

For more on programming with Java on the Heroku platform, which the company says eliminates many of the problems associated with J2EE, check out co-founder Adam Wiggins’s blog on the news.

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