stratus release coming mid-march

The next external release of the Cloudsmith service, which we're calling Stratus, is set for release mid-March.

Two things are changing. On the surface, most of the remaining complexity will finally be gone. And we're adding native support for OSGi...

The basic service will work the way it always should have - you find components in the map and stack them into distros. If the components aren't there, you can map them.

Beneath the surface, we'll be adding native support for publishing and consuming OSGiservice bundles. OSGi isn't a household word yet. But most of the software and telecoms industry seems to have decided that OSGi is the new answer to the problem of how to make software modular, whether that's a Java run-time stack or the apps that get run on the next generation of mobile phones.

Basically, Cloudsmith will look to an OSGi client like an OSGi bundle (or component) repository (OBR). (bundle repository) on steroids. When you're creating OSGi bundles, you'll have all the capabilities Cloudsmith gives you - the ability to stack components into complex distros, publish them as 'virtual' distros, resolve them on the fly and download them, etc. When it's time to run those bundles on some local client - an Android phone, for example - you can just point it at Cloudsmith and run the app from there. We think this will be pretty important.

There will be other enhancements in the release, but that's what's most interesting.