WSO2 acquires Aussie-based Platformer, drives innovation for developers

WSO2 has acquired Platformer, with the intention of extending Kubernetes capabilities and empowering enterprise developers and DevOps.

Platformer is a Melbourne-based startup that offers cloud products and services to freelance developers, startups, and enterprise DevOps teams.

It will be central to extending the Kubernetes capabilities of Choreo, WSO2's new integration platform as a service (iPaaS). It will also further WSO2's footprint in Australia, following the opening of its Sydney office in 2018.

With the acquisition, Kanchana Wickremasinghe, Platformer co-founder and former CEO, joins WSO2 as vice president and product manager, Choreo Data Plane.

Wickremasinghe says, "WSO2's software for API management, integration and CIAM is powering the digital services of some of the world's largest organisations, and with Choreo, the company is driving a new level of innovation and agility powered by Kubernetes.

"In joining WSO2, we have an opportunity to pursue our shared vision of empowering enterprises to leverage cloud native engineering in scaling their digital businesses while fostering greater developer collaboration, speeding release cycles, and maximising the cost efficiency of their cloud native applications.

Using WSO2 for API management, integration, and customer identity and access management (CIAM), organisations are able to extend APIs to securely deliver their digital services and applications.

The Choreo iPaaS, now in public beta, builds on WSO2's technology by enabling developers to engineer in low-code and pro-code simultaneously; build, test and deploy in Kubernetes; manage APIs; share them in a marketplace; and observe performance.

The Platformer Console complements Choreo by enhancing its Kubernetes-based deployment capabilities to support multiple regions, multiple cloud providers, and even private clouds, the company states.

The Platformer technology will allow Choreo to expand beyond the open source Ballerina programming language to support the DevOps management of any containerised workload.

It provides capabilities for centrally managing the development, deployment and monitoring of cloud native applications; accelerating the development cycle; and building apps for vendor-neutral Kubernetes in a cloud agnostic way.

WSO2 vice president and regional GM Tass Melissnos says, "We are excited by the local impact of this partnership, further enhancing WSO2's presence in Australia and throughout the region as a leader of innovation in API-first lifecycles, microservices, and CIAM security in order to streamline business objectives and digital transformation.

WSO2 founder and CEO Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana says, "Kubernetes is the de facto standard for developing and deploying cloud native applications. In adding Platformer's state-of-the-art technology to our Choreo iPaaS, we are extending our commitment to supporting native Kubernetes for cloud native engineering.

"We're now well-positioned to fully capitalise on Kubernetes for cloud orchestration and let customers focus on creating, connecting and protecting their cloud native apps and APIs.