Alfresco launches cloud developer programme

Alfresco hopes to ease the transition to cloud computing

Alfresco Software has set up a developer programme for users wanting to build and deploy collaboration, document and records management applications on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platform.

EC2 enables customers to rent processing space by the hour on which to run their own applications.

Alfresco will provide customers and its partner community with a developer kit and other software as part of its Cloud Content Application Developer Program. A subscription-based service will also be made available to interested parties requiring enterprise 24x7 support.

"Legacy applications may run in the cloud, but modern content service approaches consuming services resident in the same cloud are required to inherit the full benefits of a cloud service architecture," said Alfresco chief executive John Powell.

"Only then can enterprises and governments achieve the cost efficiencies of on-demand scalability, fault tolerance and cloud-wide network security for documents, records and collaboration."

Powell added that a study by the University of Berkeley, California called Above the Clouds: a Berkeley view of Cloud Computing (PDF) indicated that it is between one fifth and one seventh cheaper to manage content in the cloud than in a medium-sized datacentre.

Cloud computing received a vote of confidence this week after the US government announced the launch of a new service designed to enable disparate government organisations to purchase cloud-based services.