Christopher Keene

Chris Keene's "Keene View" Blog For cloud computing to take off, there need to be tools available that enable a developer to build and deploy an application without having to download anything to their desktop. This requires an on-demand development tool that sits on top of the cloud and provides a development Platform as a Service (PaaS). There are two paths that a vendor can take to create a development platform for cloud computing: cloud-first or tool-first. Cloud-first approach to PaaS: first build a cloud platform, then build a development tool that runs on top of it. This is the approach pioneered by Force.com and followed by Coghead and Bungee Labs. Tool-first approach to PaaS: first build a development platform that is host-able tool (e.g., studio runs in a browser), then "push" that platform into the cloud. This is the approach taken by WaveMaker. For Force.co... (more)

The Web is the New App Store

I attended the GigaOm Mobilize conference (where VMware was well represented by CTO Steve Herrod) and came away with a few observations that are relevant for our overall mobile strategy: The web is the new app store. I had dinner with the heads of mobile for two large retail chains. Although each of them have multiple App Store apps, the vast majority of their mobile business is coming through the safari browser and not the app store. Consumer behavior is to go to the web to buy things, even on mobile. There are only two mobile markets, native iPhone and mobile web.The shift to H... (more)

Five Free Mashup Tools You Should Know About

Mashups is a pretty broad term. A good definition for a mashup tool is a solution that allows developers to combine interesting data and then visualize that data through a web application Usually, mashups are web applications that can be created quickly using standard web services (e.g., REST) and components (e.g., Widgets). There are three kinds of Mashup tools: front end, back end and integrated. The differences are: Front end mashup tools: these tools help build web front ends like dashboards using widgets/gadgets and little to no programming (iGoogle, PageFlakes) Back end mash... (more)

PaaS Is a Cloaking Layer for Clouds

We seem to be coming to the end of the definition of Platform as a Service (PaaS) blog posts and are now moving on to the more pressing question of what is PaaS good for? In a recent Paul Maritz talk at GigaOm Structure conference, he referred to PaaS as "a cloaking layer for clouds." This is an elegant definition for a rapidly expanding market of add-on cloud services. If Cloud 1.0 is a set of servers in the sky (think Amazon EC2), then Cloud 2.0 is a layer of services that hide the complexity of developing, deploying and managing applications in the cloud (think CloudFoundry). ... (more)

Cloud Computing Is the Destination, Not the Journey

Cloud Foundry at Cloud Expo I have had some interesting conversations recently with partners about how cloud computing will affect the developer tools market. I don't believe developers jump on a band wagon just because they like the wagon. They jump on the wagon because they like where the wagon is going! Roughly every 10 years, a technology disruption changes developer aspirations and drives them to adopt new tools that get them to new places. With client/server, developers aspired to build "modern" apps and break free of the bureaucracy of central IT. Cloud computing offers a sim... (more)