GigaSpaces virtualized application platforms portfolio has recently been expanded with the release of its eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) 8.0, a product designed to provide continuous scaling and update options for applications where legacy systems are combined with newer technologies.

The new product's "Same Data, Any API" capability is said to boast greater interoperability, supporting all common interfaces for accessing data, such as Memcached, JPA, JMS, Document, and the efficient native object-oriented API. 8.0 — this ensures developers can choose the best API for the use case at hand and operate on the same data regardless of the APIs chosen. In theory, this decreases the learning curve associated with adopting the XAP technology, as organizations can use their existing knowledge base to embrace the technologies of tomorrow.

Also new in version 8.0 is its support for continuous scaling. Mission-critical enterprise applications (such as in the financial services sector) and web-focused applications, like e-commerce, online gaming, and social media require continuous changes to the application without bringing the system down. Continuous scaling allows for rolling upgrades, continuous deployment, quick introduction of complex features and real-time changes to the applications data model, business logic, or even underlying platform with zero downtime.

"Operations and administration are simplified with 8.0; XAP's elastic middleware capabilities encompass the entire application stack, simplifying the administration of applications across large clusters and providing proactive scaling and recovery from failure based on predefined SLA rules," said Nati Shalom, GigaSpaces CTO. "8.0 enables organizations to easily transition their existing infrastructure into the more modern systems needed by today's applications, such as distributed architectures, virtualized environments and the cloud."

"Both traditional and web-focused enterprises are demanding solutions that enable them to leverage their existing assets, work with familiar technology, and speed time-to-value without increasing migration costs," said Massimo Pezzini, VP at Gartner. "These solutions also must work across operational environments — the data center, the cloud, and hybrid combinations of the two."

GigaSpaces claims its long-term vision has been to create a platform that optimizes data-center and cloud readiness, making the development, deployment, and operations processes of the most demanding applications more efficient.