Progress Software Corporation today announced new data connectivity and application capabilities for its Progress Pacific Platform-as-a-Service (aPaaS) application. The new Progress DataDirect Cloud data connectivity service enables applications to integrate data from popular SaaS, relational database, Big Data, social, as well as internal data in applications such as custom CRM solutions that can be built quickly by customizing pre-existing templates. These can be run in-house or on Amazon AWS or other IaaS services.

Progress Pacific is available on Amazon AWS and, potentially, other IaaS platforms or can be purchased and run in-house on standard hardware. This makes it the AWS answer to IBM’s recent joint announcement with Pivotal of an alliance to develop the CloudFoundry PaaS. However, Progress Pacific is ased on open standards and can run equally on other IaaS platforms, including those based on the new OpenStack standard such as the HP and IBM clouds.

The connection management service allows applications to be built in less time by using a single standards-based interface to execute SQL queries against a wide range of cloud data sources. Integrated business process management and business rules management capabilities have been added, which aid flexibility to meet business requirements. Additionally, Progress Rollbase, Progress Software’s drag-and-drop Web-based tool, features an improved infrastructure for creating an enhanced user experience in standards-based applications.

John Goodson, Chief Product Officer at Progress Software, said, “Customer and partner response to the Progress Pacific launch in June has been extremely positive and we are now delivering on our vision. It’s clear that the move to aPaaS is gaining momentum as time-to-market and data capabilities in new apps are key requirements for developers and end users. Pacific addresses these needs with rich data, visual design and open deployment capabilities in a single platform.”

What it Means for Developers

PaaS provides a foundation for many developers to work against that helps virtualize-away a lot of infrastructure concerns and allows development to worry less about what libraries to customize and more time spent on the core product. In this announcement from Progress, a large segment of thought is being placed on what’s being called “cloud mobility” by providing a sort of cloud agnostic approach that will likely be part of an API and library set released by Progress that gives developers an easy handle to connect their applications via PaaS to a given cloud.

Two of the products noted—DirectData Cloud and OpenEdge 11.3—show that Progress is making moves that put them into the conceptual space that many DevOps teams are moving into right now. The Direct DataCloud product gives a set of tools to make hooking into the cloud, SQL, and even other SaaS data sources, which will clear the way for more rapid development having much of the connectors taken care of. OpenEdge looks a lot more like an Ops product with customization by making business rules and process management simplified by hooking it into a tool, Rollbase, that helps improve user experience (with drag-and-drop tools.)

Altogether, Progress looks like it’s making a conservative and wise move forward in the field of cloud and SaaS connectivity while also bolstering its  products across the enterprise spectrum by providing hooks for both developers (who will want to tinker with nuts-and-bolts), Ops, and business users (who want a smooth and clean user experience.) Along with the company’s long tradition of strong software engineering that involves rich data and presentation, this looks like a solid line-up to give current customers and interested new clients a good hook into the still-growing cloud and Big Data ecology.