Bungee Labs yesterday released a new version of the Bungee Connect web application development and hosting platform and opened its Public Beta program to all developers. Bungee also released WideLens, a comprehensive reference application for Bungee Connect, solving real-world calendar integration woes between Microsoft Exchange, Salesforce.com, Google Calendar and other data sources.

The company claims that Bungee Connect is now the most extensive implementation anywhere of a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

“Bungee Connect provides developers the most capable, efficient and cost-effective pathway to build amazingly interactive and secure rich web applications that actually solve business needs," said Lyle Ball, Bungee Labs vice president of marketing. "Our reference applications demonstrate the underlying technologies, features and processes that make Bungee Connect the most comprehensive Platform-as-a-Service,” he added.

"Cloud computing, internal-external mashups and online business services are hastening the need for new business models that can support entire application lifecycles," said Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst of Interarbor Solutions, who continued:

“It's not enough to develop as a service, or to deploy as a service -- the fuller cost-benefit payback comes from the application lifecycle as a service. All the better that costs to support the applications from inception to sunset are commensurate with use and demand. Enterprise IT innovators and efficiency-minded independent developers alike should view the Bungee Connect model as the platform and mashup approach of the future."

Developers use Bungee Connect to build professional-class, desktop-like web applications that leverage multiple web services and databases, Lyle explained, then instantly deploy them on Bungee’s high-performance multi-tenant grid infrastructure.

>By providing development, testing, deployment and hosting in a single, on-demand platform, Bungee Connect enables a new class of extremely interactive rich web applications while eliminating significant time and cost across the entire application lifecycle—reducing time-to-market by as much as 80 percent," Lyle noted.

With Bungee Connect, Lyle explained, developers and IT managers can now leverage a completely on-line platform to build and deliver powerful, AJAX-enabled, multiple data source web applications.

Bungee-powered applications may be embedded within other web applications and pages, SaaS solutions, or delivered as stand-alone web destinations. Bungee Connect and all Bungee-powered applications are accessed through Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari with no software download, install or plug-in.

"Bungee Connect is the first end-to-end Platform-as-a-Service for professional-class web application development and delivery," Lyle said.

Developers can sign up for a free Bungee Connect developer account at www.bungeeconnect.com, he added.