Catapult Public Relations

COLLABNET LAUNCHES CLOUDFORGE, INDUSTRY’S FIRST ENTERPRISE-GRADE DEVELOPMENT-PLATFORM-AS-A-SERVICE (dPaaS)

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:12:21 +0000

CloudForge enables software development teams to develop and deploy in seconds, using a hybrid mix of tools, application frameworks and deployment clouds

BRISBANE, Calif., April 30, 2012 â�� CollabNetÂ® (www.collab.net), a global leader for Enterprise Cloud Development and Agile ALM products and services, today announced CloudForgeâ�¢, a new development-Platform-as-a-Service (dPaaS) that helps distributed teams and enterprise IT organizations adopt, manage and scale cloud-based development activities using a hybrid mix of tools, application frameworks and deployment clouds. For teams, CloudForge provides ease-of-use, instant access to popular development tools, integrations with cloud services and one-click deployment to public PaaS or private datacenters. For IT organizations, it provides centralized role-based security, automated backups, visibility and compliance needed to code, connect and deploy software applications within a hybrid mix of public, private and on-premise cloud environments. CollabNet also announced that its on-premise TeamForgeÂ® and Subversion Edge installations seamlessly integrate into CloudForge. â��Rapid developer adoption of cloud-based services has enabled companies of all sizes to build and release new categories of software, including mobile, local and cloud-based applications, without assuming the upfront capital costs associated with supporting requisite new IT,â�� said Guy Marion, vice president and general manager for CollabNet Cloud Services. â��As cloud development matures, CloudForge addresses the glaring need for a secure, flexible and scalable platform to help enterprises gain control of and benefit from hybrid cloud development.â�� CloudForge represents the industryâ��s first enterprise-grade dPaaS offering, and underpins CollabNetâ��s strategy to lead the adoption and growth of Enterprise Cloud Development. It provides code repository hosting (Subversion and Git), access to hosted and third-party Agile tools, and facilitates the deployment of applications to public and private cloud environments. It uniquely extends to and integrates with on-premise applications like TeamForge, Subversion Edge and leading commercial and open source tools, or to affiliated cloud platforms like Cloud Foundry and SOASTA. This mix of hybrid cloud and lifecycle capabilities enables development teams to leverage the power of Agile processes and DevOps initiatives â�� while providing the enterprise with a centralized view of productivity, cost management and compliance. â��Having a flexible platform to quickly build and ramp up a cloud development program has helped our company become more agile and responsive to the market,â�� said Rahul Subramanian, managing director for DevFactory, a Trilogy company. â��CollabNet and its CloudForge platform provide a much needed development and deployment front-end to the IaaS and PaaS offerings that are available today â�� our developers love it and it provides the visibility and control we need to run the business.â�� CloudForge is an entirely new platform that is built upon the industry leading CodesionÂ® cloud development framework that more than 4,000 global customers use daily. It is more than a year in the making and leverages CollabNetâ��s extensive experience building development communities and helping enterprise IT organizations manage complex distributed team environments. While CloudForge offers an easy, flexible and low-cost â��on-rampâ�� to cloud development, it is 100 percent enterprise-ready, with the high availability, backup, compliance, security, user management and support expected from a world-class cloud offering. â��By partnering with CollabNet, CloudForge provides a front-end development platform that provides easy access to the Cloud Foundryâ�¢ PaaS environment â�� whether hosted in the public cloud, private cloud, or on-premise environment,â�� said Jerry Chen, vice president, Cloud and Application Services at VMware. â��With CloudForge, CollabNet is bringing cloud development and Cloud Foundry to the enterprise in a way that makes sense for development and operations teams, and provides a centralized platform for executives.â�� Starting today, CollabNet is making CloudForge Cloud Services accessible from within all of its products, including its TeamForge ALM and Subversion Edge SCM platforms. Initially, the new Subversion Edge CloudBackup service provides seamless Subversion data archiving, redundancy and migration capabilities for any on-premise user of Subversion Edge or TeamForge, without leaving their own desktop environment. Future hybrid cloud services will become available later in 2012 within Subversion and TeamForge, and may range from elastic server provisioning for build and test, to data analytics services and access to knowledge communities. The CloudForge hybrid cloud development platform includes the following capabilities:

Collaborative UI: A newly designed user interface that promotes open, collaborative development in the cloud and for the cloud, with an emphasis on sharing, speed, simplicity and built-in training.
Developer Feed: Aggregates development activities in real time through a streaming, searchable dashboard for easy reference and data access.
Reporting Center: Provides centralized visibility for development managers and IT administrators with a focus on project performance against milestones, coding progress and system/access logs.
CollabNet App Center: Building and managing a cloud development platform is easy through Â two â��App Zones,â��
- My Services â�� provides easy-to-provision development services included within the CloudForge Public Hosting plan, including SCM (Subversion, Git and CVS), trackers (Trac, Bugzilla and DAV) and Agile ALM (ScrumWorksÂ® Pro and TeamForge) tools. Integrated services include basic (Basecamp, Pivotal, FogBuzz and Lighthouse) and premium (JIRA, Rally and VersionOne) levels.
- Marketplace â�� additional add-on services may be purchased through the CollabNet partner ecosystem, including: Cornerstone, ALMWorks, BrainEngine, SOASTA, New Relic and Zendesk.
- Hybrid Cloud Deployment - Includes one-click deployment to public PaaS or private datacenters

Share this story via Twitter: @CollabNet launches @CloudForge to drive #cloud #software #development in the #enterprise. Learn more today at www.collab.net/ecd Availability CloudForge is being rolled out as part of CollabNetâ��s corporate re-launch and alignment to support Enterprise Cloud Development. It is currently available for free public beta by visiting http://cloudforge.com/try. CloudForge will be commercially available, with full enterprise support, starting later in the second quarter of this year. About CollabNet CollabNet is a leading provider of Enterprise Cloud Development and Agile ALM products and services for software-driven organizations. With more than 10,000 global customers, the company provides a suite of platforms and services to address three major trends disrupting the software industry: Agile, DevOps and hybrid cloud development. Its CloudForgeâ�¢ development-Platform-as-a-Service (dPaaS) enables cloud development through a flexible platform that is team friendly, enterprise ready and integrated to support leading third party tools. The CollabNet TeamForgeÂ® ALM, ScrumWorksÂ® Pro project management and Subversion Edge source code management platforms can be deployed separately or together, in the cloud or on-premise. CollabNet complements its technical offerings with industry leading consulting and training services for Agile and cloud development transformations. Many CollabNet customers improve productivity by as much as 70 percent, while reducing costs by 80 percent. For more information, please visit (www.collab.net).

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CollabNet, TeamForge and ScrumWorks are registered trademarks of CollabNet, Inc.Â CloudForge is a trademark of CollabNet, Inc.Â Subversion is a registered trademark of the Apache Software Foundation.Â Other names may be trademarks of their respective holders. Contact: Christie Denniston Catapult PR-IR O: 303-581-7760 M: 303-827-5164 cdenniston@catapultpr-ir.com

COLLABNET USHERS IN THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: ENTERPRISE CLOUD DEVELOPMENT

CollabNet aligns strategy with Enterprise Cloud Development; adds and integrates CloudForge into its product portfolio to drive hybrid cloud development and deployment

BRISBANE, Calif., April 30, 2012 â�� CollabNetÂ® (www.collab.net), a global leader for Enterprise Cloud Development and Agile ALM products and services, today unveiled its new corporate strategy to support the enterprise adoption of hybrid cloud development and deployment. It is the culmination of 12 years of development vision, innovation and community-building to better connect teams, processes and tools, both on premise and in private and public clouds. In addition to launching its new strategy, corporate website and a host of thought leadership content around Enterprise Cloud Development, CollabNet today launched CloudForgeâ�¢, the industryâ��s first enterprise-grade development-Platform-as-a-Service (dPaaS), and also integrated CloudForge into its on-premise TeamForgeÂ® and Subversion Edge products. â��The information technology sector, and the software development industry in particular, is rapidly evolving into a mix of Agile, DevOps and hybrid cloud practices to accelerate application development and deployment,â�� said Bill Portelli, co-founder and CEO for CollabNet. â��Enterprise Cloud Development is the evolution of basic cloud development, as it enables enterprises to extend their internal IT practices to the external cloud in a flexible and hybrid nature by leveraging existing systems and embracing new platforms. Our customers are telling us that their software engineering processes must be enhanced to introduce new spans of control as their teams adopt hybrid cloud development and deployment.â�� As part of its corporate alignment to support Enterprise Cloud Development, CollabNet unveiled its new website that includes a series of online presentations, and is sponsoring an IDG TechCast called â��What you need to know about Enterprise Cloud Development.â�� The TechCast is available for immediate viewing and includes videos of CollabNet executives, partners and industry influencers, a white paper and animated video scribe outlining five practical steps to incorporate cloud development into Agile and DevOps practices. To register for CollabNetâ��s free webinar on Enterprise Cloud Development, please visit: (http://visit.collab.net/ecdevent.html). Follow this link (http://www.collab.net/ecd) for useful content:

Online presentations of CollabNet executives, partners and industry influencers.
Download the 5 Steps to Enterprise Cloud Development white paper.
View the Enterprise Cloud Development animated video scribe.

Follow these links to:

Try the free beta of CloudForge at (http://cloudforge.com/try).
Visit CollabNetâ��s new website at (www.collab.net).

Industry research shows that cloud development is quickly working its way into the overall enterprise IT mix. For instance, a 2011 study conducted by Saugatuck Technology indicated that â��75 percent of all companies will be doing some of their development in the cloud in 2012, and an average of 50 percent of new software deployments worldwide will be made in the cloud by the end of 2014.â�� Based on its years of experience and patterns of customer success, CollabNet has outlined a blueprint containing five practical steps to guide organizations on their path to Enterprise Cloud Development as they adopt hybrid cloud IT into the application development and deployment lifecycle. The steps include: 1) embrace the cloud for centralizing access and visibility to tools and processes; 2) create a robust coding community to encourage reuse; 3) codify development processes by standardizing tools, workflows and processes; 4) automate DevOps practices; and 5) take a hybrid approach by leveraging public and on-premise private cloud resources in a secure, compliant and optimal way. To deliver customer and industry value, CollabNetâ��s Enterprise Cloud Development strategy is strengthened by three new product offerings: 1)Â Â Â Â Â The launch of CloudForge: CollabNetâ��s next-generation dPaaS is built from the previously acquired CodesionÂ® public cloud hosting platform, and meets the needs of professional teams throughout the entire organization. It helps developers and IT managers instantly develop and deploy software using a hybrid mix of tools, application frameworks and deployment clouds â�� all with enterprise security and compliance in place. 2)Â Â Â Â Â Standardizing Enterprise Cloud Development for the industry: CloudForge adds unique capabilities for its users, and creates new dPaaS business opportunities for third-parties through its new App Center. By offering complimentary, best-of-breed development and deployment services, including Cloud Foundry and SOASTA, users gain integrated functionality and platform partners can directly access CollabNetâ��s more than 10,000 customers. It also helps CollabNet rapidly expand its menu of services offered within the CloudForge user interface. 3)Â Â Â Â Â ALM and SCM hybrid cloud services: Initially, CloudForge Cloud Services will be available to customers with on-premise deployments of Subversion Edge and TeamForge. A new Subversion Edge CloudBackup service now provides seamless Subversion data archiving, redundancy and migration capabilities for any on-premise user of Subversion Edge or TeamForge, without leaving their own desktop environment. Later in the year, additional hybrid cloud services will be available in TeamForge and Subversion Edge, such as elastic server provisioning for build, test and deployment. â��Software development is changing, due in part to the growth of cloud computing. Smaller teams are taking the lead with cloud-based development, and in turn provingÂ value and gaining the attention of executives responsible for the bottom-line,â�� said BenÂ Kepes, principal at research firm Diversity Analysis. â��As enterprise IT looks to cloudÂ development, offerings such as CollabNet's, that provide the foundation forÂ companies to embrace the cloud in a manner that integrates into and extends existingÂ development processes, will be seen as the best way of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.â�� Share this story via Twitter: @CollabNet launches new #cloud #software #development for the #enterprise. Learn more today at www.collab.net/ecd About CollabNet CollabNet is a leading provider of Enterprise Cloud Development and Agile ALM products and services for software-driven organizations. With more than 10,000 global customers, the company provides a suite of platforms and services to address three major trends disrupting the software industry: Agile, DevOps and hybrid cloud development. Its CloudForgeâ�¢ development-Platform-as-a-Service (dPaaS) enables cloud development through a flexible platform that is team friendly, enterprise ready and integrated to support leading third party tools. The CollabNet TeamForgeÂ® ALM, ScrumWorksÂ® Pro project management and Subversion Edge source code management platforms can be deployed separately or together, in the cloud or on-premise. CollabNet complements its technical offerings with industry leading consulting and training services for Agile and cloud development transformations. Many CollabNet customers improve productivity by as much as 70 percent, while reducing costs by 80 percent. For more information, please visit (www.collab.net). CollabNet, TeamForge, and ScrumWorks are registered trademarks of CollabNet, Inc.Â CloudForge is a trademark of CollabNet, Inc.Â Subversion is a registered trademark of the Apache Software Foundation.Â Other names may be trademarks of their respective holders. Contact: Christie Denniston Catapult PR-IR M: 303-827-5164 O: 303-581-7760 cdenniston@catapultpr-ir.com

Prediction #2: ALM tools become the gateway drug for hooking developers on cloud and PaaS

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:31:25 +0000

Prediction #2: ALM tools become the gateway drug for hooking developers on cloud and PaaS

by Mik Kersten, March 3rd, 2011

The productization of DOS by Microsoft in the 1980s kicked off the trend of platform vendors clamouring for developer mindshare. Apple's App Store may only generate 1% of the company's profit, but it drives the platform that sells Apple hardware. One of the best examples of the value of a developer platform is Microsoft's Visual Basic (VB), which is yet to see a rival in terms of breadth and pace of adoption. In 2010, VB ranked as the 5th most popular programming language on the Tiobe index, still well ahead of iOS's Objective-C. Microsoft's investment in developers goes well beyond paying homage to the company's roots, since Microsoft knows the sheer number of Windows license sales that can be attributed to each developer that they won over with VB.

Developers drive the success of platforms. Whenever a platform shift occurs, such as the shift from proprietary to open source or from desktop to mobile, interest in gaining developer mindshare is renewed. While we may all be overloaded with atmospheric-condition-related acronyms, we are in the middle of a fundamental shift in enterprise software platforms. The VMware hypervisor has replaced Dell blade server as the hot new technology. Application architectures are being transformed by REST-based services. Over the course of the year, support for multi-tenanting Java applications will result in more significant changes to the programming model that any of the incremental features coming in Java 7. The shift to cloud and Platform as a Service (PaaS) has ramifications beyond the change in the deployment model. One of the most important changes coming down the pipeline is the convergence of open source, PaaS and ALM. The continuous integration and delivery loop, becoming increasingly popular in Agile deployments, will put a new set of requirements on both ALM tools and the connection between the running application and the developer's workbench.

All of this is good news for developers. There will be an increase in competition, choice, and budgets which are dedicated to bringing developers to new application hosting destinations and PaaS solutions. Over the course of the year, early adopters of PaaS will help to harden these new offerings in order to get them ready for the on-premise and private cloud primetime. If you are an early adopter and running a greenfield project, you're bound to see some cool hosting and services thrown your way. But there are a few things you will need to watch out for when migrating to the bleeding edge. Beware the snake-oil pitch that moving your Java app into the cloud will be as easy as choosing a hosting provider. When migrating existing applications, you are likely to discover that achieving a scalable and cost effective architecture will involve significant efforts such as reconsidering your data storage, implementing multi-tenancy and porting the application to new ready-made services. This migration is similar to moving from a rural homestead to a downtown condo-it will take more than just a moving truck, your lifestyle will change, and you will spend less time worrying about your plumbing.

We have transitioned from thinking about applications as static entities that we build and deploy to living entities whose evolution is punctuated by releases and sprints. Given the turnkey automation promised by PaaS, developers will demand integration between the running application and the lifecycle tools used to manage it. This will drive one of the most important developer-centric trends in ALM, the convergence of application hosting and monitoring with ALM. The core ALM services of change management and continuous integration will become the hub between the developer's desktop and the running application, with tasks as the unit of abstraction. An application failure or problem will automatically create a defect that includes the application state that is related to the problem encountered. The product owner will schedule that defect into the appropriate sprint, and when the developer picks it up, all of the code relevant to the defect will be instantly retrieved from the SCM system and brought into focus. The commit of the fix will automatically spin up a build in a staging environment, deploy it, and then pass it on to production or Ops when tests pass. This future needs a new level or coordination between the core services of the ALM stack and PaaS offerings.

Vendors that tie together the programming model, frameworks, virtualization, hosting and ALM will be the winners in the battle for developer mindshare. To capture a meaningful snapshot of a hosted application, the runtime must understand the programming model. To present this to the developer, the IDE tools must be capable of be effective in displaying that information alongside the code. And at each step of the way, it's the ALM tools that will facilitate communication between the various stakeholders in the process: monitoring by Ops identifies a problem, that problem's state is captured in the issue tracker, the issue pops up on the developer's desktop, and then all subsequent changes are attached and captured on the corresponding task and reported in the build that was triggered. Workflows of this sort will require significant changes from ALM stacks, which have generally ignored the details of application build and deployment to date.

ALM services will also facilitate the migration of applications to the cloud. As we saw from the $212M acquisition of Heroku, supporting developer workflow provides a great on-ramp for application hosting. In the land of enterprise Java this is considerably more complex than a Git-based push and deploy of Ruby apps. But the need to bring this kind of simplicity to the Java application lifecycle is the same, and tasks provide the link necessary to scale continuous integration and delivery to large Java applications with a broader range of stakeholders ranging from dev, to Ops and QA.

Connecting the IDE to an ALM hub and using the hosted source and builds to drive deployment will provide a convenient on-ramp to application hosting offerings, and will significantly reduce the configuration and administrative burden currently placed on developers. While it can be fun to play around with configuring deployment environments and continuous integration servers, this level of busy work gets very tedious after a few months. A new level of automation is needed to help us focus on delivering application features and business value in the face of increasing platform complexity. Source, issue tracking and continuous integration will be a welcome gateway drug to cloud and PaaS application hosting. While having an app store claim 30% of all enterprise application revenues is not something we are likely to see this year, a Steve Jobs-like focus on turnkey simplicity of deployment and lifecycle management will help win the hearts and minds of developers making the move to the cloud.

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