Sunsetting Bitnami Launchpads

Authored by Alejandro Gómez, R&D Manager at VMware

The Bitnami Launchpad service was released at the beginning of 2013, when the major cloud service providers—AWS, Azure, and Google—were just developing and launching application marketplaces for their platforms. Bitnami Launchpad offered a simpler user experience to deploy applications in the cloud. Providing our own service also allowed us to give users access to the latest, most up-to-date version faster than was available through the cloud vendor marketplaces. Thousands of applications have been deployed through the Bitnami Launchpad.

However, since those early days, cloud service providers have shortened their validation and publishing timelines, and the user experience for deployment from their marketplaces has improved considerably. Through these cloud platform marketplaces, users not only get a simplified process for procuring software, but now they also get faster access to the most recent version of Bitnami solutions as well as a fully integrated deployment experience with the platform of their choice.

In this context, today we are announcing the deprecation of the Bitnami Launchpad service and recommend deploying our solutions directly through the cloud service providers’ marketplaces. Here are answers to a few questions you might have.

Where can I find Bitnami by VMware solutions?
We have worked with the major cloud service providers to make our software available to you:

• AWS LightSail and AWS Marketplace
• Azure Marketplace
• Google Cloud Marketplace

How does the Bitnami Launchpad deprecation affect my servers?
Your instances will not be stopped or removed because they are running in the platform of your choice under your cloud account. However, you will not be able to launch new servers or manage and access existing servers through the Bitnami Launchpad interface.

December 15, 2022: Launchpads will be accessible, but you will not be able to launch new instances or add new cloud credentials. However, you will still be able to manage your instances from our launchpads as well as from each cloud console.

February 15, 2023: Launchpads will no longer be accessible and you will have to manage your instances from each cloud console.

Which actions do I need to perform?
Option A (recommended): Upgrade your server. Launch a server for the most recent version of the application through one of our partners and migrate your data.

Option B: Ensure access to your existing server through the cloud service provider console. Download your SSH keys from the launchpads to ensure you will be able to access your instances after January 31, 2023. Find information about how to download them for each cloud provider:

• Download information for AWS
• Download information for Azure
• Download information for Google (Note: In Google you will be able to access them through SSH from the GCP console using the integrated Cloud Shell)
  

Get WordPress Bundles for the Google Cloud Platform Through Bitnami

Originally published on the Jetpack Blog


In August, developers’ lives got a lot easier when official WordPress images certified by Bitnami and Automattic became available on Amazon Web Services.

Now, you can also find official WordPress images on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)! Automattic (the folks behind Jetpack, WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and more) partnered with Bitnami to provide a straightforward, secure way to use WordPress and Jetpack on GCP.






From the moment you click the Launch on Compute Engine button, you can focus on your website content without worrying about how to package and launch your new site on the Google Cloud Platform server. And the WordPress images are free to launch — you’ll only need to pay Google to host your application once it’s deployed on the Google Cloud Console.
What's in the box?

To give you a head start with site-building, the image has the popular Jetpack and AMP plugins pre-installed.

Jetpack is Automattic’s all-in-one solution for WordPress. It replaces dozens of plugins with a single solution that gives you rock-solid site performance, security, and customization tools, including: 

• A free image CDN to optimize images and serve them from Jetpack’s global network.
• Brute force attack prevention to automatically block hacking attempts.
• Backups to protect your investment.
• Site activity to monitor all changes made on your website as they happen.
• Dozens of high-quality Gutenberg blocks to make editing posts and pages in WordPress a breeze. Add contact forms, ads, payment buttons, image galleries, and more to your site.

See the full list of features at Jetpack.com.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an essential tool for building rich, fast websites that work great on mobile devices. Previously, AMP mode would leave out features and styles, but the AMP plugin for WordPress converts all your content to AMP markup automatically. Other highlights include:

• Core theme support that works with all WordPress core themes from Twenty Ten to Twenty Twenty.
• A compatibility tool for detailed debugging information for validation errors.
• CSS tree-shaking that automatically removes the majority of unused CSS to bring your files below AMP’s 50KB limit for CSS.

Pick the WordPress image that works for you

Bitnami provides a range of cloud images for different needs. To launch an image, click the link then select Launch on Compute Engine. A WordPress server will be running on your console in minutes! Choose from:

• WordPress Certified by Bitnami and Automattic: ideal for personal sites and testing environments. It includes all default features.
• WordPress Multisite Certified by Bitnami and Automattic: perfect if you have different domains and sites controlled by a unique administrator.
• WordPress with NGINX and SSL Certified by Bitnami and Automattic: the right choice for dealing with a high number of connections.
• WordPress Multi-Tier Certified by Bitnami and Automattic: designed for high-demand environments. The application and database run on multiple virtual machines, which improves capacity and security.

Find out which WordPress image best matches your WordPress use case.

Not sure where to start? Follow this step-by-step guide! If you’re stuck or have questions about launching WordPress on Google Cloud Platform, check out Bitnami’s documentation for WordPress or visit the Community Support Forum.