Virtualize your WordPress

Awhile ago I wrote about the future of software deployment being virtualized servers bundled and ready to turn up in seconds.  After watching a recent episode of the Scoble Show that future gets much closer to reality.  JumpBox is a new application installation platform that allows any Linux aplication to be bundled into a virtual machine that can be instantly powered on in your virtual server environment regardless of your virtualization vendor.

JumpBox works with XenSource, VMWare, Virtualiron and Parallels virtual server products and is open source.  They currently support over 25 popular Linux applications like Sugar CRM, Drupal, Bugzilla and everybody’s favorite WordPress.  Of course they are tirelessly building new JumpBox deployments like phpBB, Cacti and Moodle in their Proving Grounds beta area.  They welcome beta testers and allow free sign-up to the Proving Grounds.

You can download free versions of supported virtualization server products from the vendors listed above from their respective web sites and the application vm installers from JumpBox.  If you need further convincing to try this software deployment model you may view of demo application deployment running on Virtualiron’s server product.

The days of struggling with package dependencies and worrying about prerequisites are gone.  Forget everything you ever knew about installing software and leave complexity behind.