Cloud computing is more than just applications delivered over the Internet—creating those applications calls for a cloud-specific platform and cloud-specific tools.

Paraleap Technologies, an emerging provider of cloud computing tools, is preparing the beta release of its landmark AzureWatch program. AzureWatch, that works with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to bring additional power and services to make the administration and development process more powerful, and the end-user cloud environment more reliable and robust.

“Cloud computing has always been a difficult thing to define,” said Igor Papirov, CEO of Paraleap Technologies. “It’s more than just applications that are located outside of your data center. There’s an infrastructure behind it, and a very unique development approach to creating those cloud-based applications.”

Cloud computing is traditionally defined as comprising three components: software as a service, infrastructure as a service, and platform as a service. Software as a service (SaaS) is the user-facing component of the cloud. It’s the applications that end users can access from their computers from any location. Infrastructure as a service is the delivery of compute resources such as servers and storage over the Internet. “But platform as a service is perhaps the least understood of all,” added Papirov. “Think of it as an operating system for the cloud, which provides a basic foundation for all of those cloud applications.”

Building on that foundation provided by Windows Azure, Paraleap Technologies’ AzureWatch adds dynamic scaling, so those applications automatically have all the resources they need, at any time. The elastic scaling functionality that AzureWatch brings to the table is the key ingredient that brings out the power of the cloud platform. With this feature, managers no longer have to worry about overprovisioning resources, or experiencing a slowdown because servers are overburdened. Access becomes more reliable.

To learn more about AzureWatch, log onto Paraleap Technologies’ web site at http://www.paraleap.com.