Morph Labs and Webtide today announced the launch of a new platform version to enable developers to deploy, deliver and manage Java applications without the time and expense of setting up and managing a web delivery environment.

The Morph Application Platform for Java, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that virtualizes the application environment and leverages cloud computing resources such as the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is now in limited developer preview.

Webtide, the team behind Jetty, has brought that Java web server to the Morph Application Platform. Through its developer advice and support, Webtide has played a key role in the implementation of Java into the Morph Application Platform to extend the functionality to include deploying and delivering Java applications.

Based on open standards and best of breed open source technology, the Morph Application Platform provides developers with an end to end web application environment that includes load balancing, high availability infrastructure, distributed computing, virtualized web stacks, databases, managed backups and 24x7 monitoring. It puts developers in control and provides an alternative to building and maintaining an infrastructure, or the need to invest in costly hardware. It also provides scalable resources and an environment that can grow or shrink as required through the push of a button, allowing Java developers to support customers yet avoid over-provisioning.

“The Java market is clamoring for a solution that matches our Ruby on Rails Platform as a Service,” said David Abramowski, CEO of Morph Labs. “By adding Java support to the Morph Application Platform we are ahead of Google’s App Engine, which only lets developers write web applications in Python with caveats. We know that great software requires open, standards based environments and that is exactly what we are delivering.”

As the experts behind Jetty, Webtide will work with Morph and extend its developer advice, support and development to companies wanting to migrate or develop new applications that can run on the Morph Application Platform for Java. Webtide will offer conversion packages and expert support subscriptions, such as the ones it offers for distributions of Jetty to auction houses, banks, and online services such as Zimbra’s Collaboration Suite and Desktop, among others.

“Teaming up with Morph Labs provides us with a new way to extend our expertise and offer a comprehensive set of services for the on-demand world” says Adam Lieber, CEO Webtide. “Our team can help migrate existing Java applications to the Morph Application Platform and provide ongoing advice to ensure the maximum benefit to the customer in terms of most rapid development and best practices in architecture.”