Combining platform as a service (PaaS) with a built-in ability to integrate and manage hybrid cloud deployments, TIBCO Software today threw its hat in the cloud computing ring by taking its middleware and Java development and deployment platforms to new heights.

Coinciding with the JavaOne conference and coming on the heels of other PaaS announcements this week, TIBCO debuted TIBCO Silver via an online virtual conference. While general availability of Silver is not due until 2010, private beta launches begin this month, as the start of a rolling series of expanding beta launches this year. [Disclosure: TIBCO is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Edition podcasts.]

TIBCO's take on PaaS is notable for its emphasis on global 2000 enterprises, with a target on custom business applications, and with a largely automated means to integrate cloud applications and processes with on-premises IT resources and data. Silver is also working to appeal to corporate developers via initial support of Java, Spring, POJO, and Ruby. Later, Silver will add support for Python, Pearl, C, C++, and .NET. That covers a lot of development territory.

As for deployment, TIBCO is starting out on Amazon EC2, but will provide ease in portability for applications and services built with Silver onto other popular clouds provider offerings. The goal is to provide a universal middleware and runtime platform layer -- as a service or as a private install -- that can accommodate mainstream corporate developers with the choice of any major cloud and any major tool and framework, said Rourke McNamara, product marketing director at TIBCO.

"ISVs are welcome, but we're focusing on global IT with Silver," said McNamara.

Relying heavily on the Active Matrix platform, TIBCO is making Silver "self-aware" for cloud use by largely automating provisioning and elastic accommodation of required applications support infrastructure. With the emphasis on enterprises, TIBCO is also building in governance, security, and the ability to meter services based on policies and service level agreements, they said.

"Because it is self-aware, TIBCO Silver manages the performance of the application and dynamically deploys additional resources to ensure the SLA is met," said TIBCO, in a release. TIBCO Silver manages the performance of the application and dynamically deploys additional resources to ensure the SLA is met, said the Palo Alto, CA-based supplier.

Pricing and the business model around TIBCO Silver have not been finalized.

What's more, Silver is leveraging TIBCO's heritage in complex event processing (CEP), SCA composition, BPEL-based orchestration and SOA governance to enhance the automation of application performance and extensibility, even while running in third-party clouds, sais McNamara. TIBCO's CEP engine is embedded into Silver, to allow for policy-based rules to manage how cloud-based applications can be accessed, used, metered and scaled based on a variety of use cases and business process variables.

[UPDATE: At today's live online conference Matt Quinn, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy, TIBCO, showed demonstrations of using SIlver with Ruby on Rails and automation of cloud deployments.

Subject-based addressing in Silver allows for information flows, like mashups, but extends publishing into app dev. Cool.

Silver has three parts: design studio, "intelligent" deployment, and administrator.

Studio allows for app and/or services from model to configuration. Allows for highly visual, or for tools and coding choices based on developer preferences. Composition comes from outside tools, but linking of components can be automated via Silver.

Governance gets baked in via Silver Center Console and Administrator, says Quinn. The steps seem pretty seamless through the steps of development, deployment and configuration.

Quinn wraps up by showing how SOA middleware when applied to cloud provides the best of SOA with the economics and RAD that customers want. SOA plus cloud get the job done.

Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com, appearing at TIBCO's live event (follow on Twitter at #TIBCOSilver).]

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