Software Manufacturing: A CFT White Paper

We just put the finishing touches on a white paper titled, "Software Manufacturing: Custom Application Stacks for Virtualized Infrastructure and Cloud Computing." (1.8MB .pdf). As you'll see, the cover is mostly white, and the document is indeed paper-shaped, as a white paper ought to be. For those who are looking to minimize the number of words they take in, here's a quick high-level summary about the document.

Summary
Historically customers have acquired their middleware software on a vertically-integrated basis from one or a few category-dominant vendors. However, a customer revolution in service-oriented architecture (SOA) and service-oriented infrastructure (SOI), combined with ever more complex business needs, has driven customers to a multi-sourced middleware component architecture. As these market mechanics have evolved over the last decade, the middleware market is moving from single-sourced, tightly-coupled, vertically integrated middleware, to multi-sourced, loosely-coupled, vertically aware application and middleware stacks. While multi-sourcing allows customers to apply the latest middleware innovation to their business, it comes at the price of exploding complexity, as they manage many more combinations of available and applicable software components. Despite this, CohesiveFT (CFT) believes application stacks do not need to be complex to install, configure, deploy, or manage; whether to physical, virtual or cloud computing infrastructures.

CFT provides an on-demand platform that enables customers to build and manage application stacks for the virtualized data center; whether owned by the enterprise or “in the clouds.” The Elastic ServerTM platform provides the ability to assemble, manage and deploy a virtualized application stack that is dynamically defined from component libraries consisting of open source, commercial source, and proprietary customer code. It dramatically improves the quality and consistency of application stack assemblies at the same time that it reduces time to market.

The Elastic Server platform allows customer choice of individual components at defined architectural layers, covering components from just above the hardware, up to the application itself. By offering an Elastic Server Community Edition to the global developer community, CFT tracks timely insight and trends about the evolving virtualized server environment at large, software component interaction information and proven configuration rules.
CohesiveFT’s built-to-order application stacks:

• deploy to all major virtualization formats and an increasing number of cloud computing providers
• are given a unique identity, encapsulated, and injected with management and integration services
• include a connection to an online patch management system
• are able to track internal configuration changes for systems management and compliance purposes

The Elastic Server platform performs as a “content management system” for component assemblies allowing customers to ensure that only the components they want and approve go into their servers. It provides application stack lifecycle management and rapid provisioning; also recording each server’s unique history, enabling monitoring and patch management. In the data center, unique software servers can be managed just like other network devices - each
manageable, portable and maintainable. The speed and agility afforded by dynamic Elastic Server assembly allows organizations to reclaim resources spent on infrastructure maintenance, allocating them instead to new initiatives that will differentiate their businesses.

Still here? You probably want to one-click download the 7-page paper in its entirety. It's a compelling read, replete with fancy charts.

Interested in creating your own Elastic Server filled with components you choose? Stop by the factory to start assembling a cloud or virtualization-destined server in real-time. Want to learn more about how you can use Elastic Server in your Enterprise? Holler back in the comments or reach out via our Contact form.