CloudBees-Stax Webinar: Follow-up

On Dec 14th, we announced the acquisition of Stax Networks. Yesterday, Spike (Founder of Stax Networks) and myself hosted a webinar where we dove into the details of what the integrated platform would offer and demoed what developing, building and deploying on the CloudBees cloud would look like.

For those of you who couldn't attend here are some resources:

• Replay of the webcast

• Slides used during the presentation:

• Acquisition FAQ

There were numerous questions asked in the webinar, which we said we would provide answers to in the blog. So here it goes:

Q: How do Stax accounts migrate to the new DEV@cloud?
A: When the integrated platform is released – Staxaccounts will be migrated into the CloudBeesinfrastructure. At this point, Staxusers will need to enter a new password, after which the Staxapps and databases will show up in the CloudBeespanel. At this point, Staxusers will also be able to use the DEV@cloudservices.

Stax users who want to start using the DEV@cloud service right away can create an account on CloudBees today. In this case, we will provide a mechanism to merge your accounts.

Q: For existing Apps on Stax, will they continue "as is" and can we still directly deploy .war files via STAX for existing Apps?
A: Yes, existing Staxusers can keep continue working with their apps as they always have.

When the Stax platform is integrated with CloudBees, current customers will be able to put their code into the CloudBees DEV@cloud Continuous Integration system, and from here publish their application on the Stax PaaS, which will be integrated into the RUN@cloud platform that CloudBees has been working on. Stax customers will now be able to do everything – develop, build, test and deploy – in the cloud.

Note: the capability to hook into DEV@cloud will be optional, you can still use exclusively one or the other service, this is really à la carte.

Q: Pricing for existing Stax accounts?
A: We are working on an updated pricing – so please stay tuned.

Q: On the architecture diagram what is provided in the box "watch code"?
A: This cycle is really handled by our Hudson as a Serviceoffering, providing continuous integration in the cloud. As shown during the webcast demo, as soon as some code is modified in your code repository, a notification can be sent immediately to your Hudson instance so that it initiates proper build and test activities, possibly followed by a live-deployment onto the RUN@cloud platform.

Hudson being a highly plugable platform, you can extend it thanks to the very long list of available plugins.

Q: What about remote JVM debugging in the cloud?
A: We currently do not currently support this scenario but are considering options on how to best implement. it When running in the cloud, you may be running across various servers, but you can only connect to one at a time with a debugger, which doesn't fit the standard debugger model. We are also thinking about a "debug mode" where specific requests would be sent to a specific node to which a debugger could be attached. If you have specific ideas or requirements, let us know .

If you need that feature today, you can however use our SDK - which contains a full fledged runtime environment - and debug application locally in an environment very similar to the servers deployed in the cloud.

Thanks for attending the webinar.

Onward,

Sacha
Sacha Labourey, CEO