Prasanna was with Infosys for over 15 years implementing software solutions across verticals and geographies to address the business needs of clients across the globe. He has managed several technology transformation initiatives at Infosys. Prasanna was also a key member of Infosys Labs and has led application framework development initiatives. Prior to CloudMunch, he worked at Misys as Director of Engineering for Misys's BankFusion Platform. Both at Infosys and Misys, he has led several large engineering teams and leveraged engineering automation to achieve better quality and productivity which became a passion and led to starting CloudMunch with Pradeep.
Q & A…
Why did you opt for a cloud PaaS start-up and not for a SaaS start-up which is currently a hot technology trend?
A simple answer, when we were tossing ideas around, we decided to focus on an area we knew best. Our area of expertise is software engineering. And that’s how CloudMunch came about. Doing this on a Cloud was an obvious choice the way the industry is evolving.
I think CloudMunch can be considered a SaaS for software delivery as well.
Globally, there are over a dozen PaaS players. Many of them are quite popular by now. What’s the USP (unique selling proposition) of CloudMunch?
Our objective is to be an end-to-end software delivery platform, i.e. what is termed as adPaaS (Application Delivery Platform As A Service).
The key features are:
1. An end-to-end platform that supports the application lifecycle starting from pushing code to managing your live (production) environment. This includes application quality management (code, design and architecture), testing and test coverage, deployment and environment management and finally production monitoring and management. With our open integration into ALM tools we integrate into your favorite defect tracking and requirement tracking tool to complete the map of application development.
2. Our model is created ground-up with an app-store concept. This will allow an ecosystem to develop, participate and deepen the possibilities.
3. We also create apps to make it better and easier to manage build-test-deploy life cycle. These have been built addressing specific problems our customers are facing in delivering software.
With reference to your point number 2 above, can you elaborate a little more about your API? What kind of apps can be developed around your platform?
The apps that can be developed around the platform could be to support different languages like a Play or a Lua. Or it could be a new code visualization or validation technique. Or it could also be a way to connect to a new IaaS or a PaaS, or just integrating into a new defect/requirement tracking system or otherwise. Pretty much anything you want to plug into the assembly line of software delivery.
Which programming languages/frameworks do you support? Is CloudMunch a Polyglot PaaS?
Yes. This is a polyglot adPaaS. We support Java, PHP, .NET and Ruby (very shortly)
Why should a .Net developer use CloudMunch rather than the going for the usual and obvious choice of Visual Studio and Windows Azure combo?
1. IT environments are usually polyglot. It, then, makes sense to choose
one platform that supports your environment. We have seen customers
liking this in such a case.
2. We found some of the .NET teams were excited to see some of our apps
which were more relevant to the issues they were facing in
engineering.
Node.js has been receiving excellent media traction. Are you planning to have this platform on-board?
Yes. We are looking at supporting Javascript model in CloudMunch.
Many of the PaaS providers are evolving from a single-host to multi-host deployment. Does CloudMunch support multiple IaaS providers?
Yes. We are looking at supporting OpenStack, Rackspace and Azure, in the roadmap in addition to Amazon.
Can I extract application design, code and data from CloudMunch easily in a portable standard format? In its current form, what kinds of vendor-lock in issues are expected in CloudMunch?
Yes. I should say there will be no vendor lock-in issues.
With Windows Azure’s offering of limited IaaS, will this trend continue i.e., does CloudMunch envision itself as an IaaS player down the line?
No.
Are the Indian IT majors strategically prepared to grab the big cloud opportunities that are knocking on the door? What is your point of view?
Is there an option? They will have to ride on this wave if they have to be relevant to the market.
Five years down the line, which Cloud Providers (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) do you foresee dominating the Indian IT space?
SaaS is the most natural winner as you get the solution to the problem you have without having to worry about the nuts and bolts. But you will always have folks who will want the chassis for them to cobble together a solution themselves. But as you move along, you will see more SaaS and services around SaaS, which is where platforms like CloudMunch will find clear relevance.
Thank you Mr. Prasanna Raghavendra for sharing your views with Techno-Pulse readers. Good Luck.
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