A distributed modular platform for the development of cloud based applications

- A cloud IDE that supports Model Driven Development.
- Component-based application development and multilayer programming.
- Automatic database connectivity.
- Internal model and functionality repository are supported.
- Evaluation and comparison with existing systems.

In this paper we describe the CIRANO platform, a modular Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for cloud based applications. The proposed platform is built to support Model Driven Development (MDD) and team collaboration, facilitating the rapid development of advanced applications in the cloud. The paper presents at a first stage the state of the art in the field of cloud IDEs and describes the design, implementation and technical details of the CIRANO platform. The main features of the proposed platform are presented in two case studies concerning the development of an application from scratch and porting of an existing application. The paper discusses the findings in comparison with existing tools and proposes extensions of the platform as future work.