First this week we get the full on press from Microsoft about its push for building private clouds. Then VMware comes along with its own new pricing model for cloud computing service providers by charging on a pay as you go basis for virtual machines. The goal: make it more cost effective to deploy a private cloud environment.
Now comes the news that Joyent has bought Layerboom Systems. Layerboom provides hardware and software management tools for hosting companies that turn dedicated servers into a virtualized infrastructure. The deal means that Joyent can help customers move legacy servers into virtual environments.
The deal follows others that Joyent has made to extend its vision of a platform as a service for private cloud computing. In 2009 Joyent acquired Reasonably Smart, an open-source platform-as-a-service provider based on JavaScript and Git. It is compared to Google Apps engine.
These moves by Joyent are signs that competition with Microsoft is intensifying. Joyent offers an appliance for enterprises to build private clouds. Microsoft is also offering its own appliance to help an enterprise develop a private cloud environment.
The Layerboom deal makes a lot of sense. Companies are loaded with legacy servers. If Layerboom can ease that transition then Joyent has a way to provide customers with a ramp up into a private cloud environment.
