A start-up called Elastra is launching Tuesday with software that helps customers build database management systems and other applications that can be deployed on top of Amazon's EC2 cloud computing service.

The Elastra Cloud Server is available in software-as-a-service form and will be released as packaged software late this year. Elastra will initially appeal mostly to small dot-com start-ups, and perhaps gain traction over time in large enterprises, says Gartner analyst Lydia Leong.

With Amazon EC2, or "Elastic Compute Cloud," customers access computing capacity through the Internet. But deploying applications to Amazon or other cloud computing systems can be tricky, and Elastra will help customers bypass some of the complications, Leong says. "You use Elastra to provision yourself onto the cloud," she says. "It's certainly a good idea. It's something that fits naturally into the cloud."

Elastra Cloud Server gives customers two markup languages, one that specifies system design and another that specifies system deployments.

"The design functionality provides configuration-based system specifications describing what a complete application system is designed to do and how that design is to be implemented," Elastra states in a press release. "The run-time functionality takes the design as an input, connects to the cloud computing platform, allocates the appropriate virtualized hardware resources, and installs the specified database and infrastructure software, as well as the instrumentation, metering and automated management software that enables that entire system to be scalable and maintainable. After a system is deployed, the Elastra Cloud Server monitor, manages, and enables dynamic scalability of the running applications."

Elastra says its software can be used with numerous types of cloud computing systems, but for now it's mainly being used on Amazon EC2.

"Amazon is the only one that's tangible and real," says Elastra founder and CEO Kirill Sheynkman, while noting that Microsoft  and Sun are talking about developing similar services.

Web 2.0 companies looking to quickly deploy systems are among Elastra's likely customers, he says.

Sheynkman previously co-founded Plumtree Software, which developed enterprise portals and was acquired by BEA Systems in 2005. Elastra was founded nine months ago.

Whitepapers

• Secure Wireless Printing Options
• Getting in Compliance With Government Data Regulations By Leveraging Online Security Technology
• How to Offer the Strongest SSL Encryption
• Maximizing Site Visitor Trust Using Extended Validation SSL
• The Latest Advancements in SSL Technology
• Selecting Effective Virtual Directories

View more SOFTWARE whitepapers

Webcasts

• Managing the End User Experience-A Real World Example of Success
• Lowering the Cost of Email Archives
• Google Webcast: Why archive email? Top challenges and best practices
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies
• Technical Overview of Exchange Server 2007 with HP Servers and Storage
• Bringing Order and Security to your Mobile Workforce: Corporate Mobility Policy and Device Management On-Demand

View more SOFTWARE webcasts

Special Reports

• WAN Optimization: The Ultimate No Brainer
• Keeping Spam at Bay
• Application Performance Management Executive Guide
• Executive Guide: Building a Service Oriented Architecture
• Executive Guide: Virtualization Reality Check
• IT Buyers Guide To: Collaboration

View more SOFTWARE special reports