With cloud computing architectures still forming, crystallizing, and solidifying, there is comparatively little talk of application development acceleration. One note in this sector is PaaS provider Engine Yard, as the company has recently launched a new development tool in this vein.

Available on its own name-branded cloud, Engine Yard Local accelerates application development by allowing programmers to build and test applications on local machines. Only after this local testing are the applications in question ready for deployment to the Engine Yard Cloud.

This developer offering is also intended to give programmers a route to accessing a remote application (that runs inside the tool) through a new feature called Engine Yard Live.

Senior VP at Engine Yard Bill Platt says that with Engine Yard Local, his company has "leapfrogged" the traditional approach to software development, which requires a developer to commit an app to a repository, spin up a new instance, and deploy the application.

"Developers can now access a fully functional Engine Yard Cloud virtual machine anywhere, allowing them to build and test their apps on a local version of the Engine Yard stack. This makes application development easier, more flexible, and faster, so developers can focus on building apps."