Still undecided about deployment strategies, I looked around to see if there are solutions like Aptana Cloud for Java, preferably with Eclipse support. Unbeknownst to me, Java cloud support started to bloom while I was busy wriggling over SafePage’s fate late last year.

Notables are Stax Networks (TechCrunch mention) which is a service (just got the invitation code) and CloudTools, an open source tool by Chris Richardson of Cloud Foundry that makes it as simple to deploy a webapp cluster as writing a Groovy script. A common trend I noticed is moving away from using AMI as unit of change to using script to modify base AMI image on the fly. Also RightScale’s CentOS 5 AMI image called RightImage seems to be quite popular.

Are there any other Java cloud services or open source projects I overlooked?

Update: Stax uses a command-line tool with a handful of webapp template types to create and deploy. I’ll have to dig in deeper into templates to see how flexible it is.

Update 2: g-Eclipse also looks interesting. I am going to dig into 1.0RC1 release last month and play with EC2 and S3 connectors. I also found Typica and jets3t which can be used to build a custom cloud deployment tool in Java if need be *eyeroll*.

Update 3: My conclusion for the day is that Aptana Cloud stands alone as end-to-end solution so far although others are catching up fast. Note that Aptana Cloud is essentially a cloud reseller, focusing more on development and initial launch phases of startup where companies like RightScale seems to be focusing more on post-launch operational headaches.