CenturyLink acquires hot platform-as-a-service AppFog to beef up its cloud power

CenturyLink has acquired hot platform-as-a-service provider AppFog in a move to add more firepower to its Savvis Cloud suite.

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We’ve been following Portland-based AppFog for some time. The PaaS is popular among developers because it offers several ways to speed up app development and interoperability between public and private clouds, and it supports many programming languages, such as Java, Python, Node, .Net, Ruby, PHP, MySQL, Mongo, Django, and PostgreSQL.

Now, CenturyLink is hoping that hardcore developer sentiment will boost its Savvis product, which provides various IT infrastructure solutions. The move lets Savvis expand its portfolio outside of infrastructure solutions. Savvis customers will now have access to AppFog’s public and private PaaS options.

A source close to the deal told us one example of how it will work in the future. In the next few months, CenturyLink/Savvis will offer gigabit fiber connections to businesses and then also offer them a AppFog-powered “PaaS in a box” that makes it extremely simple to develop and deploy web applications on public sites.

The price CenturyLink paid for AppFog was not disclosed, but AppFog had attracted about $10 million in venture capital to date. Lucas Carlson, AppFog’s CEO, will transition into a new role as vice president and cloud evangelist at Savvis.

“AppFog leads the way in platform-as-a-service capabilities and continues to see strong adoption in the developer community,” Savvis president Jeff Von Deylen said in canned statement. “Combining AppFog’s market-leading platform-as-a-service capabilities with Savvis’ industry-leading infrastructure-as-a-service cloud services and CenturyLink’s global network will enable developers to securely and reliably operate and connect the applications they build and deploy.”

Bridge in fog photo via eduardomineo/Flickr