OpenEdge Applications in the Amazon Cloud

Roy Ellis has been working for Progress Software since 1995. He started in Technical Support where he supported the Progress database on all operating systems for versions 6 to 8 before transitioning into development. He was a member of the development teams that brought you WebSpeed, AppServer, NameServer, AdminServer, and most recently OpenEdge Explorer and Management (formerly Fathom Management).  As a Principle QA Engineer he still regularly participates in customer calls with Technical Support. His most recent project is in the "Cloud", investigating and helping customers leverage the power of Amazon EC2 and OpenEdge.

Roy started working with the "Cloud" when he was asked to help an Application Partner deploy his SaaS (Software as a Service) Application to the Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute) platform.  From the very beginning he was impressed by the potential of this emerging infrastructure.  The Amazon EC2 and S3 (Simple Storage Service) are the basis for Amazon's IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).  This gives the ability to start, stop and manage virtual machines in the internet.  Amazon EC2 users can run any product they wish on these virtual machines.  They can backup and protect data in the internet on virtual file systems.  They have nearly unlimited resources at their disposal and they pay only for what you use!

Although there are many cloud providers available, OpenEdge started with Amazon, one of the largest providers, supporting both Windows and Linux operating systems.  Amazon has a very active development staff and has good documentation and forum support and they also have a very competitive pricing strategy.  Roy has written several "Getting Started" white papers to help users register with Amazon and then install and test their application in the Amazon Cloud and he's currently working on writing other best practices for the cloud.

Roy expects the Cloud to change the SaaS environment much in the way it has changed many other businesses and our everyday life.  The music industry is still trying to adapt to users purchasing music from the internet and not on media.  The television industry is currently seeing a shift to internet viewing and is struggling to adapt.  The telecommunication industry has probably changed the most so far.  And who can imagine a world without Facebook, instant messaging or Tweeting? 

Roy does not think all applications will be deployed to the "Cloud" but that it will become a powerful segment of the market.  The power of the internet will once again change business and as it does, Roy continues to investigate Cloud providers and services for OpenEdge Application Providers and for Release 11.

Join Roy and hundreds of other OpenEdge users for Progress Exchange Online on Tuesday, September 14^th at 11:15 AM EDT and hear Roy talk about OpenEdge Applications in the Amazon Cloud. To register, please visit www.progress.com/exchange2010