Start-up Uhuru Software’s new AppCloud Ready To Go service targets software developers who want to write applications that span the .NET and open-source worlds. The platform as a service runs atop Cloud Foundry’s open-source platform and supports Java, Ruby, PHP, Node.JS as well as the Microsoft .NET framework, said Michael Surkan, director of product marketing for the company.
Last December, Uhuru launched a beta of a .NET specific version of its PaaS but went back and added support for these other languages as well as a new management console and integration to popular applications including WordPress (see disclosure), SugarCRM and Magento. AppCloud Ready to Go was made available as a private beta in late June and has 1,100 developers signed on, Surkan said.
Uhuru was founded by two Microsoft veterans: Jawak Khaki, a former corporate VP, and Jawaid Ekram, former GM of Live Meeting services.
Uhuru’s service competes with ActiveState’s Stackato, AppFog and Tier3, which are offering cross-platform Cloud Foundry-based PaaSes of their own. There is some debate, however, about whether multi-platform PaaSes really are better than their language-specific counterparts. Companies like ActiveState, Apprenda and AppHarbor are pitching their .NET platforms as providing better, deeper integration and support of that Microsoft technology.
Disclosure: Automattic, the maker of WordPress, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.
