Heroku goes after large-scale Java

Java applications have been run on the Heroku Platform as a Service (PaaS) for quite some time now, although the target audience has generally been small companies and private individuals. Now, cloud service provider Salesforce.com, which acquired Heroku in late 2010, is expanding its Java support by offering a new service called Heroku Enterprise for Java that could interest large organisations as well.

The new service consists of a full Java stack, a Tomcat web server, the Memcache caching service, and a PostgreSQL database. A preconfigured system will allow Java developers to easily install and run their web applications in the cloud once they have uploaded them as WAR (web application archive) packages. Java 6 and 7 are supported, as well as the latest builds of Java 8, which is still in development. Heroku also provides an Eclipse plug-in that can be used to communicate with the Heroku platform from the development environment, although scripts can be used for other IDEs as well.

The new service was presented at Salesforce's Dreamforce '12 event, where Heroku's integration with Bamboo, Atlassian's continuous integration server, was also announced. Prices for Heroku Enterprise for Java start at $1,000 per month for each application and include support, and access to technical resources. Optional 24/7 support is also available for an additional fee.

Heroku started out as a PaaS for Ruby applications in 2007 and has since become "multilingual", supporting Node.js, Clojure, Python, Scala and PHP. Ruby creator Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto joined the company in mid-2011.

(crve)