Zend, IBM, MS unveil OSS cloud

Zend Technologies, in association with IBM, Microsoft and others, has unveiled the 'Simple API for cloud application services' project, a new open-source initiative that enables developers to use common application services in the cloud, while enabling them to unlock value-added features available from individual providers, reports eWeek.

Zend officials said the Simple Cloud API project aims to facilitate the development of cloud applications that can access services on all major cloud platforms. Zend, IBM, Microsoft, Nirvanix, Rackspace and GoGrid are co-founding contributors to this community project.

The Simple Cloud API project empowers developers to use one interface to interact with a variety of cloud application services, enabling them to more easily access new technologies from cloud vendors, says Dirk Nicol, director of emerging technology in IBM's software group.

Open source firm Red Hat posted its second quarter results for 2010, showing revenue up year-on-year by 12%, states Computing.co.uk

Total revenue for Q2 was $183.6 million, up from last year's quarter figure of $156.3 million. Profits increased 37% from $21.1 million to $28.9 million. But this was mostly due to what Red Hat called 'a discrete tax benefit' of $7.3 million, so without it profit shows a modest 2% rise.

Subscription revenue increased year-on-year to $156.3 million, a 15% rise. Red Hat chief financial officer Charlie Peters says: "We're particularly pleased with the growth of the current portion of deferred revenue, combined with the lengthening of our average subscription duration."

Microsoft has unveiled another 'Spark' programme to help build the developer base for its Web products, says RedmondDeveloperNews.

The WebsiteSpark programme, which follows DreamSpark for full-time students and BizSpark for software start-ups, offers free licences for tools and server applications, along with technical and marketing support from Microsoft and its partner network.

Qualified companies with 10 employees or less will receive three full licences for Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, two licences for Expression Web, and one licence for Expression Studio 3, which includes the Expression Blend design software and SketchFlow.