We are glad to announce that VMware App Launchpad Service (ALP SaaS) – the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) implementation of VMware App Launchpad (ALP) is now available – a big step forward in the Developer Ready journey. This feature modernizes and enables cloud service providers and customers alike to consume their multi cloud applications without worrying about the underlying endpoint security and infrastructure. Service providers and customers can now leverage ALP SaaS through our VMware Cloud Partner Navigator (CPN) portal. With this, service providers and their customers can deploy and manage applications across all Navigator compliant cloud endpoints (VMware Cloud on AWS and Cloud Director service clouds).
What’s new in the new ALP SaaS?
ALP SaaS is now available natively through CPN, cloud admins and tenant admins can manage application catalogs on ALP prior to connecting to any cloud endpoints. Users can add applications – including third party and secure Bitnami applications – from VMware Marketplace to their catalog repository through ALP. As ALP SaaS is fully integrated with Cloud Director service (CDS) as well as VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) – the solution offers cloud providers a central management console to manage catalogs and applications across all their Cloud Director service end points; also, tenants can now deploy applications running on both VMs and Container Service Extension (CSE) native clusters anywhere across their Cloud Director service locations. The solution automatically recognizes and extends the underlying infrastructure and networking for the Kubernetes (K8s) clusters so that providers and tenants need not worry about configuring any external network for these Kubernetes clusters and can straight-away deploy and manage (launch/ list/ delete) container workloads from their coding environments. They can simply expose these K8s clusters securely to the internet or use ALP for internal users to deploy K8s workloads on a unified platform.
ALP also allows custom applications and Helm Chart support, allowing providers and tenants to publish applications they have built directly into ALP to be available to tenant developers and users. Providers can manage their application catalog repositories across multiple cloud endpoints including CDS and VMC instances and make the application ready for deployment providing customer organizations with one click deployment anywhere across the globe.
What opportunity does this address?
In a world where cloud provider portfolios need to be attractive and comprehensive to increase offering differentiation and avoid customer attrition, App Launchpad addresses consumers of cloud who have less focus on cloud complexity and more focus on applications, typically developers who have a growing influence on deciding the cloud infrastructure and tools their business uses. Cloud Providers can now offer the most conducive set up for developer tenants to build cloud native applications without having to worry about the underlying complexities.
Accelerate the Time to Value with simplified Operations
ALP Service offers the right platform for cloud providers to service new personas, drive more platform consumption, and create faster applications of their underlying infrastructure from pre-architected, tested, secure and validated application offerings along with custom catalog support. ALP Service will show as a service tile on the Navigator portal and is accessible by all CPN customers by default.
Cloud Providers can deliver ALP Service as a fully managed service, or enable customers to self-serve, and monetize these options accordingly. Providers who wish to extend their offerings, can add VM and container applications with custom logos and descriptions in-app customizations for container launch (e.g., username, password) all via the ALP user interface.
Further Reading:
To know more about ALP SaaS, please visit the documentation page here.
