Novell has released SUSE Appliance Toolkit, a suite of tools that claim to significantly reduces the time and cost for independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises to develop, deploy and manage software appliances. The Toolkit features an onsite version of Novell’s appliance-building solution SUSE Studio and new management tools that enable ISVs and enterprises to reduce software development time, installation cycles and maintenance costs.

VMware has released Java and Python open-source software development kits (SDKs) for the VMware vCloud API, making it easier for developers and ISVs to jumpstart their projects by flexibly leveraging private and public cloud services. The new Python and Java SDKs for the VMware vCloud API will simplify and accelerate developers’ ability to leverage VMware vCloud services.

Top predictions for the cloud computing industry in 2010 by Elastra Corp. Stuart Charlton, CTO at Elastra says “In 2009 we saw a lot of large enterprises get their feet wet with cloud computing. They were testing the waters and trying to figure out a model that fits for the way they operate. In 2010 we will see a lot more projects kick off and the growth of private clouds in major companies. Thankfully the hype cycle of cloud computing has faded. Now the real adoption of this exciting technology in the enterprise can finally begin.”

An interesting look at Microsoft over the past decade. This article by Gavin Clarke for the Register looks at how the landscape has changed with the OS, browsers, software development languages, cloud computing & mobile software, the successes, the mistakes Microsoft made and the opportunities it still has.

The 4th IndicThreads.com Conference On Java was held on 11-12 Dec 09 in Pune. While Java software today is being used more widely than ever before, there are also a number of questions that are being asked of Java. Inline with the state of Java today, the theme for conference 09 was “Turning The Corner”. Thank you to all the delegates, speakers, sponsors & partners of IndicThreads for their support & participation.

SparkBuild, a free software build tool claims to make developer builds up to ten times faster. SparkBuild helps developers overcome the challenges inherent in build avoidance techniques and makes debugging faster and easier. It is free for both commercial and non-commercial projects.