Developers are a driving force behind the rapid adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise. For companies like Axway, they represent a massive market opportunity that simply can’t be ignored.

The Phoenix, Arizona-based cloud solutions provider kicked off the week by pulling the curtains back on a new release of its API management platform. Version 7.2 of API Server introduces a transaction log, support for historical data analysis, and improved data access controls that can help organizations simplify large development projects. Mark O’Neill, the vice president of innovation for Axway, explained in an interview with SiliconANGLE’s Kyt Dotson that v7.2 ensures corporate developers only access the APIs that they absolutely need to use.

Like Axway, Rackspace is exploring new ways to lure developers to its platform. On Thursday, the cloud host announced that every new account in the US or UK will now be automatically credited with $50 a month over a period of six months. That’s enough to rent 10GB of SSD storage and 10GB worth of disk, along with two 20GB Linux servers and a modest amount of transport capacity.

Not to be outdone, VMware bolstered its lineup with a new version of Fusion Professional, the power user edition of its desktop hypervisor. The platform features several major enhancements, including the ability to expire virtual machines and give multiple VMs access to the same storage space.

Fusion Professional 6 made its debut on the heels of Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia. The software giant agreed to shell out $7.2 billion for the phone maker, in addition to $250 million for a new data center in its home country of Finland. The facility will help accommodate the rapid growth of the Xbox and Windows Azure ecosystems.