LongJump to foster private clouds for corporate IT

As cloud computing edges forward in fits and starts, one recurring question is whether more companies will opt to put their IT services on so-called public clouds or private ones.

The former are available to any individual or business, which essentially rent out a menu of scalable resources. That's a popular option for startups and fledgling outfits, which can't afford to sink much money into paying for an extensive hardware infrastructure. Private clouds, on the other hand, typically offer stronger security and reliability and are thought to have special appeal to IT managers keen on keeping their use restricted to company employees.

Now LongJump, which sells an on demand enterprise applications platform, is licensing technology that will let IT managers build apps on a cloud platform as a service and keep local control of their data. LongJump's CEO, Pankaj Malviya, said the product also will reduce the time involved in a company creating a private cloud where it can build build customized applications.

The company is also hoping to reach software developers, who want to put out branded software-as-a-service products. Malviya said that this is a group which heretofore has been priced out of the market for "comprehensive, multi-tenant platforms." In other words, the users and applications will share an infrastructure and code base that will be managed centrally.

Malviya said LongJump would charge on a CPU basis, rather than by the number of users. The price ranges between $60,000 to $240,000, depending on the platform and range of options selected.

LongJump is one of the signatories to the Open Cloud Manifesto unveiled on Monday.