Comments on: Enterprise "app stores" in the cloud

The recent 3TERA AppStore announcement is the latest example of the software systems marketplace enabled by virtualization and cloud computing. How much of your future IT will be "preconfigured" for the cloud?

[jakeburns99]

Don't forget about our PaaS and enterprise app store. Right now, users of WorkXpress can use a free CRM that is fully customizable. This is much more is available. www.workxpress.com

[koestreich]

Very cool. But my gut asks this: How many enterprises *really* are going to buy mission-critical applications that are pre-packaged like this? Don't production guys want to use their own applications? What happens to the business apps team that is OK running a generic load balancer -- or even generic appserver -- but needs a more specific business app, feature or revision? I guess this "store" idea is good for the mostly generic cloud uses, and just not (yet) appropriate for production? or what am I missing?

[peter_nickolov]

@ koestreich ,

You are right, of course -- in our daily work, we use a lot of standard, off-the-shelf things, as well as some amount of custom builds. Appliances in the AppStore can be fully ready-to-run self-contained appliances, like SSL accelerators, routers, load balancers, etc.; or they can be servers on which you can add your own code/data (apache, .NET, Websphere, MySQL, Oracle, etc.). In addition, in the AppLogic world -- the target for AppStore appliances -- it is easy to mix and match standard components and custom components.

Many users take whatever the appliance catalog offers and use it as-is, add their own custom appliances -- whether built from ISO, from base image or by customizing an existing open appliance.

I hope that helps,
Peter @ 3Tera

[betsykosh]

Packaging enterprise apps so they can run in the cloud - or move from cloud to cloud as needed for best deal -- is the domain of AppZero which is already doing this for existing server applications. They are at www.appzero.com

[cprimault]

I also trust that packaging "Cloud Ready" virtual applications will be a smart way for ISVs to find users (and for users to find apps!) but I am concerned with the proprietary angle that these paltforms take. Don´t users need a way to forget about the underlying tech stacks and just decide to pick an app because it serves a business? Overtime users will have a greater power that vendors and will force the market to be fully interoperable. Will this leave some space for infrastructure and tools vendors to have their very own app store? I would love to hear your views.
Christophe