Managing workloads in hybrid public environments is more complex than ought it to be, according to cloud computing specialist Appcara. Earlier this week the Santa Clara-based firm pulled the curtains back on a turnkey solution that will help small to medium enterprises (SMEs) resolve this issue, a solution built on automation and analytics.

The new AppStack Express Appliance features a homegrown tool that captures metadata in real-time and stores it in a continuously updated ‘configuration repository’. The system taps into this database to automate provisioning and maintenance tasks. Appcara pegs its patent-pending technology as a superior alternative to the server templates and scripts that have become an indispensable part of most admins’ toolkit.

The AppStack Express configuration repository is supplemented by a point-and-click interface for deploying and managing software. Customers won’t have the freedom to run their apps on the appliance, but they can choose from over 85 pre-packaged solutions that have been tweaked for ‘total portability’ across private and hybrid clouds. This catalog is available through an integrated app store service.

The  software component of the AppStack platform leverages Citrix CloudPlatform and Xen Hypervisor. This bundle runs on a 3U dual server chassis that leverages a combination of flash and disk storage to tier data depending on how frequently it’s used.

The hybrid approach is key to Appcara’s ability to scale its solution, and is cognizant of the adaptability required for today’s increasingly complex datacenter.  It can be a challenge for IT to scale hardware and software needs in tandem, forcing the industry at large to rethink datacenter architecture all together.  When it comes to cloud application scaling and management, Appcara CMO Paul Speciale had this to say:

“It’s still far too hard and time consuming for IT staffs to do what they need to do to manage a cloud-based applications infrastructure.   Two trends are exacerbating the issue:

1) IT is moving away from packaged software deployments and toward SaaS offerings of the same products;

2) IT is also moving toward a self-provisioning role– analyst William Fellows of 451 Research calls this the “IT vending machine” phenomena, where, for example, allowing the Marketing group to set up a WordPress blog or a software development team to stand up an application it is developing and testing in a public cloud, instead of making it an action item for IT.

These trends absolutely demand that applications can scale, and the biggest challenge for IT managers today is to simplify the management of both the cloud infrastructure layer (IaaS) as well as the application layer.  This is where AppStack is focused: simplifying complex app management.”