RightScale, the cloud manager, has moved into development and test with a cloud management solution that software development and testing teams can use to provision and use cloud computing resources.

The new RightScale Development & Test Solution Pack supports four development languages, PHP, Java, Ruby and .NET, and includes Java and PHP solutions from RightScale's buddies IBM and Zend Technologies.

The IBM Java stack includes the IBM DB2 database and its WebSphere application server, available either in the freebie Community Edition or the commercial Enterprise Edition.

Zend, for its part, delivers a tested stack that incorporates PHP, the Zend Framework, required extensions and drivers, and a set of application management capabilities developers might find handy on the cloud.

Zend says that with the RightScale platform, developers can leverage Zend Server capabilities, such as code tracing, performance optimization and job queuing, to build and test scalable applications faster without spending time setting up multiple server environments.

RightScale's software pack is supposed to be an easy on-ramp to cloud computing, especially for companies that aren't ready to move production applications to the cloud, sort of a learning experience without any long-term commitment or risk.

The widgetry includes RightScale's core Cloud Management Platform with two different user interfaces - a self-service interface designed for developers and testers to launch servers in the cloud, and an administrative interface for customizing RightScale's standard environments.

It also comes with two pre-configured server environments tailored for different stages in the dev & test process: an "All-in-One" configuration for doing basic integration testing on a single server in the cloud and a "Multi-Tier" environment for more complex testing with separate load balancing, application and database servers.

Of course once in production, operations staff can use RightScale's Cloud Management Platform to monitor and manage system performance, users and costs.

The widgetry, which is supposed to maintain more consistent, reproducible environments from design through production, is available as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for an introductory subscription price of $250 a month for the first year.