News

Deployment Automation Tool for Java EE Launched

• By John K. Waters
• June 4, 2010

The deployment phase of the application lifecycle can be an untidy business, prone to errors that result in delays. Automating the process, the experts say, can reduce errors and delays, not to mention headaches. Deployment automation has, in fact, become an essential component of a number of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) systems.

But for XebiaLabs, a Netherlands-based provider of deployment automation software for enterprise Java applications, it's a specialty. Its flagship product, Deployit, is designed to automate the deployment of Java EE applications in enterprise environments, including IBM WebSphere, Oracle WebLogic, JBoss and Tomcat environments. Deployit also configures middleware components, databases, security proxies, firewalls and load balancers.

The company has just released the beta version of Deployit 1.3, which incorporates new features for auto-discovery of servers, clusters and nodes, as well as support for virtualized and cloud environments. The cloud enhancements are aimed at providing a way to consistently manage "the explosion of virtual servers and rein in issues of virtual sprawl" through a repeatable automation process, explained Reint Jan Holterman, vice president of marketing.

"The improvements with Deployit 1.3 will enable companies to better manage their Java application deployments all the way from development through production by eliminating configuration errors and increasing the quality and predictability of the deployment process as a whole," he said.

Deployit also integrates with such build frameworks as Maven, continuous integration tools, such as Hudson and Bamboo, and CMDBs, such as IBM Tivoli CCMDB and HP Universal CMDB.

Developers have access to a well-documented API framework to customize the behavior of its built-in deployment best practices, Holterman said. They can also extend the Deployit platform to include custom-built middleware stacks.

The company offers a free Personal edition of the Deployit product, the 1.3 version of which incorporates a new task-driven user interface designed to guide users through the various deployment stages of packaging, discovery and deployment automatically. It also provides extensive contextual help to better guide users through the process. The 1.3 beta of this edition is available now for download here.