Salesforce.com and VMware Form Strategic Alliance

Salesforce.com and VMware on Tuesday announced a partnership to jointly deliver, sell and support a new enterprise Java cloud called VMforce. VMforce will bring together the technologies, expertise and communities of the two cloud computing companies driving the tectonic shifts in the information technology industry.

With VMforce, the more than 6 million enterprise Java developers, including the over 2 million developers using the Spring framework backed by the SpringSource division of VMware, will have an open path to cloud computing. Now, CIOs and IT departments will be able to leverage their existing programming skills and investments in Java applications, and take full advantage of the industry-leading Force.com platform to build Cloud 2 enterprise applications that are social and work on any mobile device in real-time. VMforce will dramatically simplify how enterprises and enterprise Java developers can harness the economics of cloud computing without compromising the flexibility, control and choice they require.

"Enterprise Java developers, welcome to Cloud 2," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. "This fundamental shift incorporates cloud computing, real-time collaboration and mobile devices like the iPad to meet the new needs of the enterprise. Now, in partnership with VMware, we are delivering VMforce and bringing Java to Force.com so enterprise Java developers can create powerful new innovative Cloud 2 apps."

"Companies are looking for solutions that deliver the benefits of cloud computing while leveraging existing resources, expertise and infrastructure," said Paul Maritz, president and CEO of VMware. "By creating a dramatically simplified solution for modern application development, VMforce is a significant step forward in offering our customers a path that bridges existing internal investments with the resources and flexibility of the cloud."

VMforce is designed to deliver the first enterprise Java cloud that is:

Trusted: Running on salesforce.com's trusted global infrastructure, VMforce will inherit the benefits of a service delivery infrastructure that has received some of the most stringent security industry accreditations including ISO 27001, SysTrust and SAS70 Type II. Thousands of the largest companies worldwide are already working with VMware and salesforce.com. Now, with VMforce they can leverage the combined strength of both companies to take their mission critical enterprise apps to the cloud.

Open: VMforce will support standard Java code: plain old Java objects (POJOs), Java Server Pages (JSPs), Java Servlets, and more through the popular Spring Framework. By building enterprise Java apps with Spring, companies will be able to easily port enterprise Java apps onto VMforce or vice versa.

Elastic: With VMforce, applications can scale automatically. VMforce customers will not have to worry about scaling up app servers, databases or infrastructure to meet performance demand. VMforce can handle scalability automatically, as a service.

Complete: VMforce will provide a comprehensive solution for enterprise Java development in the cloud, including the trusted global infrastructure, virtualization platform, orchestration and management technology, relational cloud database, development platform and collaboration services, application run time, development framework, tooling and more.

Cloud 2: Cloud 2 combines next generation mobility, social collaboration and real-time information access, creating new levels of productivity and taking enterprise cloud computing the next level.

VMforce: The Trusted Cloud for Enterprise Java Developers
VMforce will be mission-critical deployment environment for enterprise Java apps in the cloud. VMforce will be jointly delivered by salesforce.com and VMware, combining the world's most popular language, Java, the world's most popular Java framework, Spring, the leading virtualization platform, VMware vSphere, and running on the world's most trusted cloud platform, Force.com. VMforce will be designed to include:

Spring Framework: VMforce will use the Spring Framework, the leading Java development framework which is backed by VMware's SpringSource division. Spring makes it easy for developers to build powerful enterprise Java apps, increasing development productivity and runtime performance while improving test coverage and application quality. VMforce will also use the SpringSource Tool Suite, an integrated, tested and certified development environment offering the most complete set of Eclipse-based tools for creating Java apps.

SpringSource tc server: VMforce applications will run on the tc Server(R) runtime, the Enterprise version of Apache Tomcat. tc Server is a wildly popular lightweight application server optimized for virtual and cloud environments.

Force.com Chatter Services: As the world migrates towards Cloud 2 social and mobile applications, developers will be able incorporate collaboration services from Chatter in their applications. These pre-built services include profiles, status updates, groups, feeds, document sharing, the Chatter API and more.

Force.com Development Platform and Services: Since VMforce will run on the Force.com platform, developers have access to pre-built business services that can be configured into their apps without requiring any custom coding. These services include search, identity and security, workflow, reporting and analytics, a robust web services integration API, mobile deployment, and more.

Force.com Database: Developers using VMforce will get the benefits of the proven Force.com relational database, including automatic scalability, high availability, auto-tuning, back up and disaster recovery.

VMware vCloud technology: VMware's vCloud technology automatically manages the software stack that powers VMforce applications, freeing developers from the cost and complexity of managing hardware and software. VMware's vCloud technology will onramp the Java application onto the cloud, automate the wiring of the application to the Force.com database, and manage the underlying vSphere virtualization platform.

VMware vSphere: The virtualization platform provides the building blocks for VMforce by providing the resource isolation, management, and virtualization for the Java applications.

Force.com Cloud Infrastructure: VMforce will run on salesforce.com's global cloud computing infrastructure, which handles an average of 250 million transactions daily from more than 72,500 customers for their most important business applications and their most sensitive data.

Original Article - Cloud Computing Journal

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