Microsoft Azure Embraces Open Source in the Midst of Promising Challenger
Although has long been the dominant Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering for companies, a recent offering from enterprise cloud platform vendor Tier 3 helps fill a few crucial holes left unfilled by Azure. To provide a brief background, Tier 3 is an enterprise cloud platform provider acquired by VM Ware back in April of this year, and their platform is called Iron Foundry.
The Service:
Overall Iron Foundry consists of three key components required for developers to implement solutions based around their needs:
- Open sourced code which allows for developers to self-host the platform for their own customized implementations
- A core .Net framework fork of Cloud Foundry – an open source cloud platform heavily backed by VM Ware – which will be kept in synch with the main development versions
- A Windows version of Cloud Foundry Explorer online casino and Visual Studio plug-in will allow for direct deployment of code from IDE’s to Cloud Foundry
In addition to the above features, Tier 3 also is making the code available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, allowing the general open source community to help improve the platform.
Azure Steps up its Game:
Despite Microsoft not being synonymous with being open source friendly, a recent set of adjustments on the Azure platform, cause Iron Foundry to have another key vendor to compete against. Some of the recently adjustments to Azure include:
- Support for numerous open source technologies including Hadoop and Node.js, whereas in the past clients were limited to .Net languages, PHP, and SQL Asure – a specialized version of Microsoft SQL specifically for the Azure platform
- Implementation of the Node Package Manager (npm) which can be installed via Micosofts Command Line tool Power Shell
- The release of a complete Microsoft SDK with support for Node.js fully integrated
‘Overall when it comes to choosing between Azure or Iron Foundry, it is likely best to give both platforms a shot as the ability to use both services without a contract eliminates the barrier which typically comes into play with traditional devices.
UPDATE: The original version of this article mentioned that Tier3 was acquired by VM Ware in early 2011 however a representative from the company has pointed out that the company is septate from VMware.