April 23rd, 2008
3Tera proposes 'cloudware' architecture
3Tera, which provides utility computing services and applications to provision, manage and monitor infrastructure via a browser, will announce Wednesday plans to lay the groundwork for a new architecture for the cloud.
3Tera will outline its vision at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Here’s what 3Tera’s Cloudware Architecture looks like (click for larger version):
Bert Armijo, co-founder and senior vice president of sales, marketing and product management at 3Tera, says Cloudware is an attempt to create a “cloud computing delivery network” that would allow various computing efforts–from the likes of Salesforce.com, 3Tera, Amazon Web Services, HP and Google to name a few–co-mingle.
Today, each vendor has its own cloud. At some point, Armijo argues that these clouds will connect. Modeled after the Internet, 3Tera’s architecture will initially be populated with its tools, but Armijo noted that the goal is to turn the Cloudware model over to a standards body.
The linchpin of the effort is really the global catalog, which Armijo defines as the “interface specification” that would allow vendors to supply versioning, appliance, architecture and application data. The idea is that providers would create a catalog to outline how these services can all connect. Armijo added that 3Tera’s is aiming to release the first interface specification in the third quarter.
Initially, 3Tera’s AppLogic software will play a prominent role in the Cloudware Architecture, but that’s because these efforts initially need at least one vendor championing the effort. AppLogic is a drag-and-drop application that allows you to couple resources and provision them remotely. Today, AppLogic manages Linux applications.
Separately, Armijo said that 3Tera will demonstrate AppLogic support for Solaris and Windows.
Solaris for AppLogic will go beta in May with Windows following in July.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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