New Eclipse Working Group: Cloud Development Tools – “The time has come for the IDE to move into the browser”

Everything is in the cloud – really everything? Typically, our traditional developer IDEs aren’t. But there is already a new generation of cloud-based tools waiting to get their big show on. The Eclipse Foundation has formed a new working group for these new tools. Mike Milinkovich explains why.
JAXenter: The Eclipse Foundation has announced the formation of the new Eclipse Cloud Development Tools Working Group (ECD WG). So my first question is obviously: What is the goal of this new Working Group?
No matter the question, the answer is always some combination of “cloud native” and “Kubernetes.”
Mike Milinkovich: The ECD WG is focused on the evolution of development tools for, and in, the cloud. An analyst friend and I joked recently that no matter the question, the answer is always some combination of “cloud native” and “Kubernetes.” And that’s probably only a very slight exaggeration! According to our own survey data, more than 80 percent of developers have plans to create cloud native applications in the next 12-18 months, so we realized we needed to prioritize our efforts to meet this demand.
Just as importantly, the IDE is really the last part of the developer tool chain that still lives on the desktop. Whether its CI/CD, bug reporting, or source code management, developers use their browser to work with everything except their code. With projects like Eclipse Che and Eclipse Theia, we believe that the time has come for the IDE to move into the browser as well.
JAXenter: Who will be involved – apart from the community of developers?
Mike Milinkovich: Founding members of the ECD WG include Broadcom, EclipseSource, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Red Hat, SAP, Software AG, and Typefox among many others. Every one of our founders is a respected leader in their space, and we have a great mix of large corporations and smaller companies. With the incredible groundswell of engagement and interest, I have no doubt we’ll see the ecosystem grow steadily.