Platform-as-a-service cloud providers are adding Python, Java, and JRuby development capabilities

Platform-as-a-service cloud vendors Heroku and Engine Yard have been branching out to accommodate more developers by backing more programming languages.

Heroku, the cloud application deployment platform owned by Salesforce.com since early this year, added Python support this week and Java support late last month. Engine Yard as of this week is accommodating JRuby, a version of the Ruby language for the Java Virtual Machine.

Both Python and Java are in a beta stage on Heroku, although developers can use them now. In addition to these languages, Heroku supports development via Ruby, Node.js, and Clojure. Developers also can use PHP when developing applications for Facebook. Applications deployed on Heroku include consumer-facing Web applications as well as some enterprise business applications for the Web.

"We basically believe that moving forward, all software is Web software," said James Lindenbaum, Heroku co-founder. Heroku was acquired by Salesforce.com in January for $250 million.

Engine Yard, in adding JRuby support, bills itself as the first platform to make available all stable, production-ready implementations of Ruby. JRuby project leaders Charles Nutter and Thomas Enebo both work at Engine Yard, after having previously worked for Java founder Sun Microsystems.

Engine Yard, which has been running primarily Ruby on Rails Web applications, wants its customers to shift over to the JRuby variant of the language.

"[JRuby] is the only Ruby that is fully concurrent, which we believe is a bare minimum for running cloud applications," said Nic Williams, Engine Yard vice president of technology. Ruby is very resource-intensive and memory-hungry, he said. "With JRuby, it's much more efficient, much more performant, uses far less memory."

Engine Yard also supports development via PHP.

Src: InfoWorld

Heroku gets Scala

It was announced today at JavaOne that Heroku,SalesForce.com's recently acquired PaaS provider, is getting Scala support. Heroku is teaming up withTypesafe to add Scala support to the Heroku platform. Typesafe, "the Scala company", was co-founded by Scala creator Martin Odersky.


“Scala is well suited for cloud computing applications,” said Martin Odersky. “Its unique integration of object-oriented and functional language features makes it a scalable and productive way to code for cloud environments like Heroku.”


Adam Wiggins, Heroku co-founder and CTO declared “The Scala programming language, Typesafe's Akka middleware, and Heroku's platform are a powerful combination for developers building and delivering the next generation of applications and services on the web.”


Scala use seems to be rapidly growing since its high profile use in Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter. Heroku's adoption of Scala seems to be an indication of its recent successes.


This year Heroku, originally a Ruby PaaS provider, has added support for JavaScript/Node.js, Clojure, Java, and Python/Django.

Src: InfoQ

Bushido - Heroku alternative

http://bushi.do/

We need to proved the git-hub URL of the project and the service will take care of the rest. But seems like its still in beta and it has got a long way ahead..