Do you have standard templates for specific apps - i.e. Do you have a Community based template store where customers/technicians can get templates for things like SQL, MySQL, IIS, etc. to speed up the VAA creation

AppZero has an "Appliance Zone" with precreated VAAs available to serve as examples. These examples are virtualized open source products.  If a template is desired, it can be generated from these VAAs, but they may also be used ‘as is’ for deployment.

For products that require a license, the process is a bit different. While AppZero does support templates, we usually describe each application's configuration in a cookbook document so that the details of the creation process are visible and easily understood. Here we also document any scripting that has been added in case there is a reason to modify it. As an example, SQL Server requires a crypto key to be generated in a script when a VAA is moved to a new machine. This type of detail can be useful knowledge and documenting it eliminates the need for a user to parse through templates looking for such info.

AppZero's technology can be integrated with existing frameworks such as OpenStack or Eucalyptus to create a "store" where apps may be simply downloaded and run. We are looking at creating a more comprehensive approach to this capability in the future. To date, we have created a proof of concept demo that demonstrates a simple Web-based drag and drop user interface for moving application instances among servers. Behind this interface, a simple framework moves the VAAs from server to server and starts them as needed.