Ninefold opens cloud to open-source devs

Australian cloud computing and storage company, Ninefold, is well on the way to making its application programming interfaces (APIs) available to open-source developers on four different development platforms and is now looking to do the same for PHP.

(One Cloud? image by Ricardo Liberato,
CC BY-SA 2.0)

The company has already had its Java/JVM and Ruby APIs included in the jclouds and Fog libraries, respectively, and its Python API has been accepted in the Apache Foundation's Libcloud. It is currently making progress on an open-source package for the Microsoft .NET platform, but the company said it needs developers to help do the same for PHP.

The company said that by having the APIs available in multiple languages, developers can standardise how their applications connect with Ninefold's storage and cloud computing products or use them to change providers.

Traditionally, if a business were to change their provider and their project was written in Java, a significant amount of work would be needed to rewrite it for another platform. Additionally, businesses are generally locked into whichever development platform their cloud provider dictates, which may not necessarily play to the strengths of its development team.

Ninefold senior developer, Lachlan Hardy, said that the company had decided to look at those five development platforms in particular as they were the cornerstones of most cloud computing requirements.

"Technology changes incredibly fast and we want to ensure that our customers and IT professionals can more widely future-proof their work and investment. This is the kind of flexibility and commitment users need to look for in any technology provider," he said.