Microsoft’s Project “Monaco” Validates Cloud Development as the Future

Today, Microsoft announced Visual Studio Online, which includes Monaco, a Web-based editor for Web Azure projects. This is a fantastic development for cloud IDE vendors; Microsoft is the first major vendor to develop a commercial offering for cloud IDEs, which further validates the market, opportunity, and future of cloud development. This, for a number of reasons, indicates a great future for Codenvy, our community, and the work we are doing.

We see Monaco as a great validation of the value proposition of cloud IDEs. Monaco is not a replacement for Visual Studio, but rather an online editor that allows developers to make rapid changes and commit their code back to Team Foundation Studio via git. Their configuration is stored with their account and is accessible on many devices. You can see some of the features they have built into the system in this instructional video.

Are we sure that this market is really coming online? There are some interesting conversations that are starting to mature on this topic.

First, there needs to be innovation and the entrance of vendors who are validating the commercial viability of this future. This is happening today as we now are aware of nearly 50 experimental projects and businesses that are trying to innovate in the cloud IDE segment. We started an analysis of the resulting market size for cloud IDEs on this Quora post.

Second, industry stalwarts must start to discuss, acknowledge and promote this market as an emerging market and a potential vision of the future. In an interview with TechCrunch, Microsoft VP of Developer Division S. Somasegar said this is “where the world is moving.”

Finally, there needs to be real adoption from users, who then speak about the solution and promote it to others. Codenvy now has 100,000 registered accounts and nearly 10,000 recurring developers each month. Our Twitter stream is lit up with conversations about usage. While not staggering, these numbers are nearly ten times what they were a year ago. Is this a trend and can we keep up the momentum as both a company and an industry? The search trends support this a bit as well, but not nearly as definitively.

So, congratulations, Microsoft, and welcome to the world of cloud IDEs. We are happy to have you join us on this journey!