VMware Adds Java Debugging In Micro Cloud Foundry Update

VMware on Tuesday released its latest update to Micro Cloud Foundry, its downloadable platform-as-a-service, which includes a series of adjustments aimed at making life easier for developers.

In addition to changing the default network setting for Micro Cloud Foundry to 'offline,' VMware is giving developers the option of debugging apps running on the platform-as-a-service in the same way they would debug apps that are running locally, Charles Lee, product manager at VMware, said in a blog post.

VMware is updating the Micro Cloud Foundry runtimes to match the versions currently running on the CloudFoundry.com public service, while also giving developers the option of turning off Micro Cloud Foundry application services when they're not using them, to preserve local PC resources, Lee said.

Cloud Foundry is a significant offering for VMware: It gives developers a way to rewrite apps in Java so that they'll run well on private clouds -- thereby accelerating cloud adoption and, theoretically, driving more customers into the VMware cloud infrastructure camp.

Micro Cloud Foundry runs within a virtual machine on a local desktop or notebook PC, and includes the software components needed to maintain symmetry between the local environment and the full version of Cloud Foundry. The idea is to give developers more freedom to build apps wherever they work best, be it at home, in a coffee shop or on an airplane in-flight.

VMware initially unveiled Cloud Foundry last April, but the company isn't rushing its development. "We're still giving birth to Cloud Foundry … we need to make sure we can do it at scale," CEO Paul Maritz said last week in a press conference at VMware Partner Exchange.

Tens of thousands of developers have kicked the tires on Cloud Foundry so far, and because it's built to be extensible, third parties have brought PHP and .NET to the platform and are building value added communities on top, Maritz said, adding that service providers may eventually wish to stand up Cloud Foundry as a service.

The Cloud Foundry vision includes the collaboration of Mark Lucovsky, technical director at VMware, and Derek Collison, chief architect of VMware's Cloud Services division, both of whom VMware recruited from Google.

Maritz often says that cloud infrastructure today is similar to the mainframe era in the sense that developers are having to choose between proprietary architectures. Linux rose to prominence as a way for developers to shed proprietary shackles back then, and VMware envisions the same happening in cloud infrastructure.

One of the guiding principles behind Cloud Foundry is that "Developers will come out with the moral, if not technical equivalent of Linux for the cloud," Maritz said.