Appcara Debuts Its AppStack R2 Platform, A Dynamic Application Layer Above the Cloud for Enterprise Applications

Grazed from MarketWatch.  Author: PR Announcement.

Appcara, maker of cloud application lifecycle solutions, announced a major new version of its AppStack(R) application and portability platform that helps enterprises and service providers accelerate complex applications into the cloud and deliver new application-based revenue sources. Incorporating a real time Dynamic Application Environment layer that eliminates the need for server templates or scripting, AppStack Release 2 changes the rules of cloud computing. With AppStack 2, enterprises and service providers gain exceptionally fast time-to-market for key business applications — maximizing time, knowledge and profitability.

While cloud deployments are common for simple web apps, the $385 billion enterprise application market remains the province of on-premises data centers, in large part because IT staffs lack the tools required to truly govern VMware, Citrix, or other private and hybrid applications running on Amazon Web Services, Citrix CloudStack or VMware vCloud. While cloud app management solutions exist, they require deep technical knowledge of application stacks, and a lot of manual, error-prone effort to use…

AppStack provides an advanced application layer above public and private clouds – to capture application components, configurations and dependencies in real-time in the industry’s only dynamic Configuration Repository – thereby automating all aspects of the application lifecycle. By decoupling apps from low-level dependencies such as operating systems and machine images into its uniquely visual, intuitive, real time environment, AppStack 2 enables total application portability, even across different public clouds — for instance, from Amazon to Rackspace – as well as from public to private clouds. AppStack allows cloud computing to expand beyond simple, predefined workloads, and into the realm of serious enterprise applications — with a single pane of glass management interface, and eliminating vendor lock-in.

"For a long time enterprises have been seeking to leverage cloud environments for more complex business applications and take advantage of the flexibility, faster time to market and markedly lower cost structures delivered by the cloud. AppStack’s ability to capture and assemble these application graphically, in real-time, is something that’s businesses can truly leverage for improved efficiency and faster time to market," said William Fellows, analyst at 451 Research.

A major new capability in AppStack 2 is the App Marketplace functionality that connects application publishers and consumers and provides a platform to enable usage-based applications, so that:

— Corporations have immediate access to business applications, enabling them to integrate applications without the need to purchase, install & configure apps as with packaged software.

— ISV’s can readily publish business applications for usage-based consumption

— Distributors can resell applications in a usage-based model in the cloud, and to move away from traditional box-based software sales.

"Many of our clients come from the Life Sciences industry where they have very sophisticated, mission critical applications running on their servers. Making a move to the cloud wasn’t an option worth considering until the AppStack solution came along," said Tim Caulfield, chief executive officer at American Internet Services (AIS). "The idea that AppStack can do the heavy lifting on the back-end and provide the user with a very clean, single-pane-of-glass interface, is quite appealing and fits nicely with our BusinessCloud1 offering."

AppStack 2 builds upon existing AppStack patent-pending components that have been in use by service providers and enterprise customers, including:

— Dynamic Application Engine — which captures user-defined app environments, settings and relationships in real-time, construct data models and insert into Configuration Repository. It automates provisioning, lifecycle management, and portability.

— Configuration Repository — which stores application settings, dependencies and change records for all application workloads. This enables speedy provisioning of application workloads as well as the ability to de-couple lower level components such as operating systems for portability across cloud vendors.

— Cloud Target Optimizer — which maps provisioning elements and instructions to vendor specific API’s and available capabilities.

"Enterprises need to get critical apps to market with the least effort and cost possible, and the solutions on the market today help with only simple, static environments," said John Yung, founder and CEO of Appcara. "AppStack keeps it simple, fast, and visual to deploy and manage even complex applications in the cloud, so customers and service providers can lower their IT costs — even with enterprise applications – and focus on scaling their business."

AppStack Release 2 will ship in July 2012. Appcara is showcasing its latest version of AppStack at Cloud Computing Expo New York, in its booth #257.