Engine Yard plugs Node.js into its cloud

Engine Yard’s Platform-as-a-Service offering is adding support for Node.js applications.

This is just the latest indication that Node.js, a server-based and event-driven JavaScript framework, is becoming table stakes in cloud development and deployment environments. Engine Yard competitors like AppFog and Heroku, now part of Salesforce.com, already support the framework.

Developers like using Node.js because it supports JavaScript — a very popular language for client-side development — and because it is fast and scalable.

Specifically, Engine Yard said that the first release of Engine Yard Labs — a program to give developers early access to new features — will  include support for Node.js. That access will be enabled on Friday, the company said.

There is a caveat however. According to a blog post announcing the news:

Features released through Engine Yard Labs are not officially supported and may or may not become supported as part of Engine Yard products in the future.

San Francisco-based Engine Yard started out focused on Ruby on Rails but added PHP support through its acquisition of Orchestra in August. Virtually every PaaS player from AppFog to Microsoft Azure   is in an arms race to support as many languages as possible.