Red Hat (News - Alert) is hoping that a marketplace built around its platform-as-a-service, OpenShift, will help it gain an edge over its Cloud Foundry rival.
The marketplace will enable Red Hat to offer customers technical solutions and add-on productivity solutions developed by third-party software developers, both making its platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution more convenient and also encourage developers to design for the system.
“The OpenShift Marketplace is our next step toward our goal of providing customers the widest variety of choice when it comes to technologies that complement their OpenShift experience,” said Julio Tapia, director of the OpenShift ecosystem at Red Hat.
Red Hat is banking on the growing trend toward app stores working in its favor, as the new marketplace should streamline the selection and purchase of add-ons, and also bring an extra measure of security. For many developers, inclusion in app stores is a crucial means for finding an audience for their software offerings.
Several partners have already committed to the marketplace, including BlazeMeter, ClearDB, Iron.io, MongoLab, SendGrid and New Relic.
“The marketplace is an incredible distribution channel for SendGrid and a positive move for customers to integrate services with the click of a button,” said Jim Franklin, chief executive officer of SendGrid. The company develops transactional email solutions.
Business customers are increasingly looking for simplicity in their software infrastructure. Software marketplaces simplify the process of selection and installation, and promise a more closed system that has a greater likelihood of “just working.”
Software vendors also are catering to this trend by increasingly offering their solutions in appliance form. This type of application deployment makes solutions turnkey, as appliances come bundled with hardware and software already optimized to work together properly. When businesses need to scratch an itch, installing a dedicated appliance makes integration and administration easy. Companies such as Unicom, which helps developers roll out custom appliances with minimal effort, make the appliance model easy both for customers and the developers who service them.
It remains to be seen if Red Hat’s OpenShift PaaS platform will catch fire. But one thing is for certain: Easy software deployment is here to stay.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson