Appcelerator Enables Scalable Mobile Back-ends with Red Hat OpenShift PaaS

With the combination of Appcelerator's Titanium Studio and the OpenShift Platform-as-Service (PaaS) developers can create and deploy scalable iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Mobile Web applications using open standards. By developing in standard JavaScript, Titanium Studio creates native applications that can be deployed to the Apple App Store and Google Play. On the back-end, developers can use open source languages and frameworks such as Java EE, Node.js, Ruby and MongoDB and deploy them to the OpenShift PaaS to be scaled and managed in the cloud.

Announcing an integrated front-end and back-end development environment

Today the Red Hat OpenShift Module for Titanium Studio is available for download [1] in the Appcelerator Marketplace. Developed by Appcelerator in collaboration with Red Hat, the free module allows developers using Appcelerator Titanium Studio to deploy back-end mobile application code to the cloud in Red Hat’s OpenShift PaaS.

This means mobile application developers can now create front-end and back-end code in the same development environment and deploy the front-end code to mobile app stores and the back-end code to the OpenShift platform. Developers who want to get started can read our Deploying Mobile back-end Services from Titanium Studio to OpenShift [2] write-up. We see a terrific validation of OpenShift PaaS in Appcelerator’s choice to integrate the OpenShift platform into the Appcelerator Titanium Studio experience.

Mobile developers want scalable cloud services

The May 2012 Appcelerator / IDC Q2 Mobile Developer Report found that 83% of mobile developers plan to use cloud services. [5] Many of these services are being sought out because of the difficulty in developing back-end server-side capabilities, particularly for developers focused on client-side activities. These mobile services need scalable application infrastructure that can keep up with changing workloads as mobile users come and go. If an application is “hot” or a corporate event causes a lot of activity, the back-end needs to scale while remaining secure.

While mobile developers want to create the best experience in their applications, they don’t want to spend their time bogged down in setting up back-end stacks, handling scaling and security, patching stack versions or any of the other administration tasks that are required in running a scalable service. OpenShift addresses these issues for them by leaving developers free to focus on what really matters: code and customers.

Developers can use Appcelerator Titanium Studio and OpenShift for free. Appcelerator’s App Explore tier is free and includes access to Titanium Studio, analytics and more. The OpenShift PaaS free tier enables developers to run mobile back-ends for languages including Ruby, Node.js, Java EE, Python and PHP along with databases such as MySQL and MongoDB utilizing up to 1.5 GB memory and 3 GB storage. Developers will be able to purchase increased capacity as their applications scale.

Announcing the Appcelerator Mobile Developer Challenge

Appcelerator has announced that registration is now open for the Appcelerator Mobile Developer Challenge – a mobile application contest which offers up to $15,000 in cash prizes.  Participants can host their apps on the OpenShift platform - to let us know that you are enjoying the benefits of the OpenShift PaaS free tier for your contest entries, use CODESTRONG when signing up at openshift.com.

Don’t forget that Red Hat’s OpenShift PaaS is also a platinum sponsor of this year’s CODESTRONG conference in San Francisco, which brings together hundreds of mobile developers to learn and interact with the latest technologies. Winners of the Mobile DevChallenge will be announced at CODESTRING. Early bird registrations are still available, sign up here [7].

[1] https://marketplace.appcelerator.com/apps/2939?556492733
[2] https://openshift.redhat.com/community/blogs/developing-mobile-apps-for-the-cloud-with-titanium-studio-and-the-openshift-paas
[3] http://openshift.redhat.com/app/account/newweb_user[promo_code]=CODESTRONG
[4] http://codestrong.com/
[5] http://bit.ly/N08wrH “Developers’ responses were remarkably consistent with last quarter’s survey results in the level of interest in integrating cloud services into their mobile applications, with fully 83% of those developers (84% in last quarter’s survey) saying that they were planning to connect their mobile applications to cloud-based services like Appcelerator Cloud Services (ACS) within the next year.”
[6] Developers’ responses were remarkably consistent with last quarter’s survey results in the level of interest in integrating cloud services into their mobile applications, with fully 83% of those developers (84% in last quarter’s survey) saying that they were planning to connect their mobile applications to cloud-based services like Appcelerator Cloud Services (ACS) within the next year.
[7] http://codestrong.com/