Compuware Launches Partner-Driven Cloud Community, CloudSleuth

 Compuware Corp. (Nasdaq: CPWR), the Detroit-based software and IT services company, has officially launched CloudSleuth.

Compuware says CloudSleuth, at www.cloudsleuth.net, is the industry's only partner-driven cloud community specifically built to spotlight the performance of the cloud's "federated infrastructure."

Partners are the backbone of the CloudSleuth community and play an integral role in collaboration and thought leadership on the site. Additionally, CloudSleuth gives partners the opportunity to provide third-party verification of the reliability of their services.

Initial CloudSleuth partners include: OpSource Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of enterprise cloud and managed hosting; CDNetworks, a Seoul, Korea provider of Web acceleration and server services; GoGrid, a San Francisco provider of cloud hosting and servers; Internet Initiative Japan, a Tokyo provider of Internet access and network services; and Teklinks, a Birmingham, Ala. managed services and data center provider.

CloudSleuth is a free community for both cloud service providers and consumers who are considering, building or managing cloud applications.

In addition to cloud computing resources and information, CloudSleuth provides real-time insight into the performance and availability of cloud-based applications using measurements from around the world.

Compuware officially launched CloudSleuth Monday at the 7th International Cloud Expo Conference.

"Being a CloudSleuth partner is an important part of our commitment to providing unmatched cloud performance," said John Rowell, CTO and co-founder, OpSource. "We look forward to sharing best practices with CloudSleuth members as a part of this rich, growing community."

"Our commitment to cloud-based network performance and superior customer support set us apart from all other CDNs," said Jeff Kim, vice president of product management at CDNetworks. "We see the CloudSleuth community as an important forum for bringing together providers and consumers for a constructive exchange of ideas. We are happy to be one of the founding CloudSleuth partners and look forward to being an active part of the community."

"As a pioneer company that has played a major role in the creation of Japan's Internet industry, we understand the importance of cloud performance monitoring and are excited to be a CloudSleuth partner," said Kokichi Matsumoto, executive officer and director of marketing at IIJ. "The Internet has become an indispensible infrastructure and cloud computing only adds to that complexity. CloudSleuth will help us stand strong on our commitment to ensure high quality services to our customers as well as give us the opportunity drive thought leadership and contribute to the CloudSleuth community."

Cloud applications can significantly reduce infrastructure costs and time to deployment. They are built using third-party components and services outside of the organizational boundaries of any one company or organization. These "borderless applications" are essentially Web-based supply chains; the effective delivery of a single Web application often relies on services supplied by multiple hosts (research indicates close to 10 hosts on average), many of which may be outside the direct control of the application's owner.

Effective quality of service management requires visibility across the entire application delivery chain, including third-party providers. The CloudSleuth community brings together these service providers, encouraging the free exchange of information and best practices to solve common problems.

"CloudSleuth is a timely offering that will help boost market awareness of public cloud QoS issues," wrote Laurent Lachal, Research Director at Ovum, an independent research firm, in the research report titled: "Compuware Boosts Cloud Performance Visibility." "This (CloudSleuth) is timely because enterprises are becoming increasingly hungry for actual data about the quality of service that public clouds offer."

"CloudSleuth establishes Compuware as the market's leading cloud performance thought leader," said Mark Hillman, vice president of strategy and product line management at Compuware. "With our unique position in the industry providing outside-in visibility across the entire enterprise-Internet application delivery chain, it makes sense for us to start a community like CloudSleuth. We look forward to an open exchange of ideas, information and resources that will benefit the market."

In addition to blogs, forums and resources provided by CloudSleuth partners, the site features a number of applications to help enterprises build and manage cloud applications. Two applications are currently available:

* Global Provider View continuously monitors a sample application running in each of the major cloud service providers. It allows users to see first-hand, in real-time, how well the sample application performs over time from the perspective of end users around the globe. Global Provider View leverages the Gomez network, including both backbone nodes and Last Mile peer collection points around the world.

* Cloud Performance Analyzer is a new application that provides users the ability to explore the impact of Cloud services on Web application response times. Cloud Performance Analyzer continuously monitors a sample e-commerce Web application built with commercial third party services. It allows users to see first-hand, in real-time, how third party services impact application performance from the perspective of end users around the globe. Cloud Performance Analyzer leverages the Gomez network, including both backbone nodes and Last Mile peer collection points around the world.

More at www.compuware.com.

(c) 2010, WWJ Newsradio 950. All rights reserved.