Cloud Wars – U.S. Army Using Agile Platform For Cloud Migration

According to CGN (Government Computer News) the U.S. Army’s Architecture Services Division within the Software Engineering Center (SEC) has deployed a platform for the quick development and migration of applications to the private cloud. The engineers are usingOutSystems’ Agile Platform for this purpose.

Cloud Computing has been one of the wide spread hypes in the IT industry with only a few enterprises really betting on it. In the meantime, many organizations are actually leveraging Cloud technologies like those from Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft or Oracle. Due to security reasons, most companies and in government organizations have started to collect experiences with private clouds.

The core challenge is to create Cloud applications, as well as to migrate existing legacy code to the cloud. Cloud infrastructures offer the IT infrastructure (Infrastructure as a Service)  and may also provide a development platform (Platform as a Service). The migration of applications to the cloud, whether a public, private or hybrid cloud is not straightforward or easy. This especially holds if prevention of vendor lock-in represents one of the main goals. 

This is a gap which companies like OutSystems are trying to fill with their products. OutSystems is offering the Agile Platform which claims to provide an easy migration path for applications to be deployed on clouds.

On their web site, OutSystems describes the Agile Platform as

an integrated suite of free open source business apps to help you jump start the learning process and quickly deliver fully functional apps, in hours.

The product is supposed to take care of development and deployment activities, provide support of HTML 5, CSS 3, as well as enable the integration of mobile applications.

But vendor promises are one side of the coin, while real experiences are the other. As in all complex software and system architecture, development platforms need to be tested thoroughly to validate their suitability.

In the CGM  news article, editor Rutrell Yasin explains:

The Agile Platform’s first test was a project to migrate a complex existing system to the cloud infrastructure. The system initially required two-and-a-half years to develop and deploy. By using Agile Platform, developers were able to re-deliver the application in only 16 weeks while adding new features, including a mobile interface, OutSystems officials said. The final application went to production in early November 2011.

Maybe, products such as the Agile Platform can boost the development and migration of application for clouds, no matter whether on-premises or not. Or are they just another silver bullet fading away in the near future? At least, the SEC seems to be happy with the path they took.

根据美国CGN（Government Computer News）网站的消息，美国陆军的架构服务分部（Architecture Services Division）与软件工程中心（Software Engineering Center，简称SEC）合作，部署了一个平台，以完成应用向私有云的快速研发和移植。工程师们正在使用OutSystems的Agile Platform敏捷平台产品来完成此项任务。

云计算已经是IT行业中广为传播的热门话题之一了，不过只有少数一些企业真得敢把身家赌上去。同时，很多企业的确开始利用云技术，这些技术来自Amazon、Google、IBM、Microsoft或是Oracle等企业。由于安全原因，大多数公司和政府内组织已经开始整理使用私有云的经验。

核心问题在于如何创建云应用，以及如何把现有遗留系统的代码移植到云上去。云基础架构既提供IT基础架构（IaaS），也可以提供开发平台（PaaS）。将应用向云上移植，不管是公共云，还是私有或者混合云，都不是那么直截了当，那么简单。当避免厂商锁定是主要目标之一时，尤其如此。

OutSystems这样的厂商及其产品试图解决的，就是这样的问题。OutSystems提供的Agile Platform，声称能够为应用向云上部署提供很简单的移植过程。

在他们的网站上，OutSystems这么描述Agile Platform：

免费开源业务应用的集成套件，能够帮你马上着手开始学习过程，并快速交付功能完整的应用，几个小时即可完成。

产品的目的是要辅助开发和部署活动，提供对HTML5、CSS 3的支持，同时提供集成移动应用的能力。

但是厂商的承诺只是硬币的一面，而真正的经验确是另一回事。就像所有的复杂软件和系统架构一样，开发平台需要彻底测试，以验证它们是否可用。

在CGN的新闻文章中，编辑Rutrell Yasin说：

Agile Platform的第一次测试项目，是把一个复杂的现有系统迁移到云基础架构上去。开始的时候，系统需要两年半来研发和部署。使用Agile Platform，开发人员可以在16周内就完成再次交付，同时加入新功能，包括移动应用界面；OutSystems官方这么说。最终的应用在2011年11月早期部署到生产环境。

也许，像Agile Platform这样的产品，可以激发云上应用的研发和移植，不管是现成的、还是尚未开发的应用。或者它们可能只是不久的将来就会逝去的“银弹”？至少，软件工程中心对他们选择的方式很满意。