Joyent is pleased to announce that we have partnered with Sun Microsystems to provide free scalable, on-demand infrastructure to OpenSocial developers. Joyent’s Accelerator on-demand infrastructure provides the very best load balancers, routing and switching fabric, x86 servers and storage. OpenSocial developers can take advantage of Joyent Accelerators to quickly launch OpenSocial applications capable of scaling to millions of users. All for free.

What’s Included?

A Joyent OpenSocial Developer Accelerator includes everything you need to develop and deploy your OpenSocial application. You get root access to a virtualized machine that includes all the tools for developing OpenSocial applications.

Note: We do not currently support Windows, and do not plan to do so in the foreseeable future.

How it works

Sign up (see the arrow on the right). There’s nothing to pay for six months. All that we ask is that your OpenSocial application be ‘active and in use’. Any OpenSocial application sitting on a Joyent Accelerator that is dormant for more than 30 days will be re-claimed.

All we need is some simple information, your OpenSocial (or OpenSocial partner) developer key, and your account details will be sent within minutes (if we have open accounts…sometimes you have to wait a few days). The service is completely free, unless you get really popular and need more Accelerators. You have root access. Within your Joyent Accelerator you’ll find all the libraries you need to develop great OpenSocial applications. However, if we’ve missed something, no worries. You are root. You can add whatever additional tools you need.

You’re going to love your OpenSocial Accelerator. We’ve seen developers like you do amazing things with their free service. And you?

Some additional terms: Due to the limited resources available, and the overwhelming positive response from OpenSocial developers, we’ve modified the terms for the free Joyent OpenSocial Accelerators. You must use your free account within 30 days after receiving log-in credentials from Joyent. You can have as many applications on the OpenSocial Accelerator as you can comfortably run. Your OpenSocial application must remain active and in use in order to remain qualified for this program. One Accelerator per person.

Price

Free for 6 months. One Accelerator account per person. It’s free. Prices start at $45/month for those that don’t want the hassle. Cancel at any time. No contracts. The full price list is here.

Free Accelerators™ for OpenSocial developers feature:

Special Notes: The Free Joyent Accelerator™ cannot be used with BIG-IP load-balancing. Mail pre-configured for outbound SMTP only, limited to 500 recipients per hour. There are no limits on the number of OpenSocial users your application may host. * We reserve the right to deal with abuse.

Support

We have an amazing community surrounding Joyent, and have set up a forum where you can ask questions, pitch ideas and get to know other developers doing cool things. Joyent provides no support for this free service.

Fine Print

hi5, OpenSocial are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners or their subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.