Apache pushes forward with LibCloud developer platform

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is moving forward with its plans to develop the LibCloud developer platform.

The open source software group has promoted the development tool from an incubator product into a top-level project.

Libcloud is a Python library which allows developers to integrate applications with the APIs used by cloud computing providers. The ASF said that the project currently supports more than 20 cloud platforms.

An ASF committee will oversee development of the platform and put together a roadmap for product releases and updates.

"Our goal is to support all the major cloud services offered by different providers," said Tomaz Muraus, vice president of Apache Libcloud.

"Developers love the existing Libcloud interface because it is clean and easy to use, and we plan to bring this simplicity and ease of use to other services such as storage and load-balancers."

Industry analysts see Libcloud as one of several projects aiming to provide a vital integration option for cloud computing platforms.

451 Group senior enterprise software analyst Jay Lyman told V3.co.uk that many customers are wary of vendor lock-in, and are looking for options that allow them to move to different services.

"This is about providing an abstraction layer so that applications can be written for different cloud platforms," Lyman explained.

"Just as we saw with support for multiple operating systems and multiple hypervisors, we are seeing the same thing in cloud computing."

The ASF has lately been involved in the legal battle surrounding Java. The group has opposed Oracle's handling of the platform and was issued a subpoena earlier this month as part of the case between Oracle and Google.