After spending time at VMware and Cloud Expo last week, I believe that VMware’s lack of full backing for Cloud Foundry software is holding back the entire PaaS market in the enterprise.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of momentum in PaaS despite how very immature the market is. But this momentum is in pockets and largely outside of the core of software development in the enterprise. CloudFoundry.com might be moving along, but most enterprises don’t want to run the bulk of their applications in a public cloud. Only through the Cloud Foundry software layer will enterprises really be able to invest. And invest they will.
PaaS-based applications running in the enterprise data center are going to replace (or envelope) traditional app server-based approaches. It is just a matter of time due to productivity and support for cloud models. Cloud Foundry has the opportunity to be one of the winners but it won’t happen if VMware fails to put their weight behind it.
Some nice projects like Stackato from ActiveState are springing up around cfoundry, but the enterprises I deal with every day (big banks, insurance companies, manufacturers) will be far more likely to commit to PaaS if a vendor like VMware gets fully behind the software layer. Providing an open source software support model is fine and perhaps a good way to start. However, this is going to be a lot more interesting if VMW provides a fully commercialized offering with all of the R&D enhancements, etc.
This market is going to be huge – as big or bigger than the traditional web app server space. It’s just a matter of time. Cloud Foundry is dominating the current discussion about PaaS software but lacks the full support of VMware (commercial support, full productization). This is just holding people back from investing. VMware reps ought to be including Cloud Foundry in every ELA, every sales discussion, etc. and they need to have some way to get paid a commission if that is to happen. That means they need something to sell.
VMware’s dev teams are still focused on making Cloud Foundry more robust and scalable. Stop! It’s far better to release something that’s “good enough” than to keep perfecting and scaling it.
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” – Voltaire
It’s time for VMware to get with the program and recognize what you they and how it can be a huge profit engine going forward – but they need to go all in starting now!
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John Treadway 
Take OpenShift Enterprise as long as VMWare is making up their minds