Dynamic Open Source Languages Head to the Cloud

May 27, 2010

The cloud isn't just for network administrators looking for scale, it's also a key development area for developers building applications with open source dynamic languages.

According to a poll conducted by analyst firm Redmonk and sponsored by dynamic language vendor ActiveState, over half of the developers surveyed have deployment plans for cloud applications within the next 12 months. Those cloud deployments are likely to be a hybrid of both public and private cloud platforms, according to 37 percent of respondents.

In terms of the languages used by developers, nearly 80 percent noted that they were using JavaScript, while both Python and Perl came in at 47 percent, PHP at 42 percent and Ruby at 31 percent.

"This confirms a lot of our basic hunches that dynamic languages are just increasing their usage in standard programming applications and especially in newer development such as the cloud application space," Jeff Hobbs, director of engineering at ActiveState, told InternetNews.com.

While many developers are headed to the cloud, that's not a conclusion that Hobbs expects that all dynamic language developers will take, however. He noted that nearly 43 percent of respondents had no plans yet for cloud development in the next 24 months.

"You think about the development cycle that a large enterprise has -- they can go anywhere from one year to three- to five-year cycles," Hobbs said. "Our question was asked with a two-year timeframe. So if you have people that have just released applications, it might still be three to five years before they can assess the value of the advantages that might be presented in the cloud." ...

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Source: developer.com