Andreessen-Backed Makara Unveils Cloud Application Deployment And Management Platform

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Feb 1, 2010

Stealth startup Makara is launching publicly tonight with its cloud-based application deployment and management platform. Formerly known as WebappVM, Makara has raised angel funding from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The startup also raised $6 million last year from Shasta Ventures and Sierra Ventures.

Rather than offer a system management software designed for traditional application environments to the cloud, Makara’s cloud-based platform leverages the virtual layer to allow developers to rapidly deploy, scale and monitor applications in cloud environments. The product, which is self-service and self-managing, is available for free on its site.

The startup’s platform allows developers to deploy new or existing web applications to a public or private cloud with no code changes. Once the application is deployed, developers can control the application runtime and have cluster-wide visibility into end user response times end-to-end through the entire stack. Makara’s offering supports Java, Flex, PHP, JBoss and Tomcat applications and runs on Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud, Terremark vCloud Express, VMware ESX, VMware Workstation, VirtualBox and Xen. Makara faces competition from rPath.

http://thecomputinggeek.com/ TheComputingGeek

Every company seems to be releasing small apps to attract a higher targeted audience. Next thing we know Tesco will have an app! If they don’t have right now that is.

TheComputingGeek
Corazal

Leena,
Profiles are missing.
http://nzgeek.org/ NZGeek

Good luck with it.
We are using RightScale at the moment – very expensive though ;(
http://www.nomorescripts.com Daniel Kushner

rPath is definitely competition but we have noticed that the main 100lb gorilla that most application service automation companies are facing are the home grown scripts. RightScale is nice for cloud specific deployments. Nolio, were I come from, provides a platform for servicing applications across all physical, virtual, and cloud environments. What’s cool, is that there’s a fully functional free edition at nomorescripts.com
http://www.brandaidblog.com Erik Johnson

Although Makara is a better brand name than Webappvm the name still won’t stick in the mind…

http:///www.brandaidblog.com

Erik Johnson
http://travellperkins.com Travell Perkins

At $288/month/node the pricing is way out of line. They are trying to sell data center architecture services that come for free with PaaS providers like Google AppEngine and Rackspace CloudSites. That price needs to be a flat rate for the service and being more expensive than RightScale is not a good start. In the end the lockin is just not worth it. What can be done by these tools can be done by tools like Puppet and other shell script automation.

Scalr was a solid open source challenger in this space for a while until they went commercial, however they are still very promising given their real world $99/month pricing model. I just wish they were running on RS Cloud. Scalr didn’t take VC money so they having a pricing model that maps to the type of person/organization that wouldn’t be able to afford sysadmins with cloud experience, a job role that is hot on IT job boards these days.
Travis Reeder

For Ruby on Rails developers, there is http://www.simpledeployr.com .
Grep

Makkara. What a hilarious name – at least for Finns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sausage#Nordic_countries

“Finnish makkara is typically similar in appearance to Polish sausages or bratwursts, but have a very different taste and texture. Nakki is a tinier edition of makkara. There’s a variety of different nakkis varying almost as much as different types of makkara. Closest relative to nakki is the thin knackwurst.

Most makkara is very light on spices and is therefore frequently eaten with mustard, ketchup, or other table condiments without a bun. Makkara is usually grilled, roasted over coals or open fire, steamed (called höyrymakkara) or cooked on sauna heating stones.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sebastian_Stadil/661953209 Sebastian Stadil

This might be of interest to you, Travell: http://blog.scalr.net/release/2010-resolution-keep-scalr-on-google-code-up-to-date/

We’re keeping the Scalr source code on Google Code in sync with what we use internally at Scalr.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkaskade Jim Kaskade

Obviously not targeted at the smaller (SMB) webapp homes….this is a larger enterprise play.

As long as the value-add is there….e.g. heterogeneous cloud environment support (aka they are cloud agnostic)…..could be very interesting.
http://blog.myptclist.com/outros/programando-nas-nuvens-2 Programando nas nuvens « Novidades

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http://storagepipe.com Storagepipe

Scalability is definitely an important concern when developing an app or service.

But for a new company just starting up, it may be better just to focus on creating a really excellent user experience until you build up critical mass in your user base. (There’s no point in being robustly equipped for rapid growth if you only have 10 customers to support)

Having said that, this video does bring up some very important points.