AppFog has acquired Nodester, the most recognized platform as a service (PaaS) for the fast growing Node.js community. The move is one of the first signs of consolidation and proof that multi-language platforms are increasingly becoming the standard for this emerging cloud market. AppFog, also a PaaS, is based out of Portland and considered one of the up-and-coming players in the PaaS space that has made its mark by offering developers the means to build and deploy apps without tbe burden of building their own infrastructure. AppFofg offers multi-language support for app developers. Node.js is a very popular server side Javascript development language that has been embraced and validated by the likes of Microsoft and Joyent, a cloud service most often associated with the Node.js movement. According to a leaked memo to customers, AppFog will now run and maintain the Nodester service as it is, but makes a point that it will provide Node support in its AppFog.com service.  The company will incorporate Nodester technology into the AppFog.com Node service, and once completed, will provide a migration path from the Nodester service into AppFog. The transition will be completed by January 15, 2013. Nodester Founder Chris Mathieu said the following in the memo: Nodester was the first 100% open source Node.JS PaaS solution available for developers and it's still one of the few Node.JS platforms that supports native WebSockets! The Nodester community is passionate about open source public, private, and hybrid cloud PaaS services. I looked at the various leading PaaS providers out there and it became clear that the only one with our vision and mission was AppFog. This partnership will give our Node.JS developers the very best PaaS solution as Node.JS continues to grow and extend into the enterprise. AppFog prides itself on its interoperability with multiple clouds. The company's service extends across different infrastructure services. It does this by using CloudFoundry, VMware’s PaaS, as the universal API to multiple infrastructure environments. That allows the service to exist on any infrastructure without the complexity that usually burdens the customer. It competes with major services such as Google App Engine. Other players in the PaaS space include Apprenda, Heroku, Engine Yard and Tier3. The market is quickly becoming defined by the flexibility in language support. AppFog now has an advantage to some degree by offering Node.js support capabilities. Founder Lucas Carlson is banking on the need for corporate wide need for using any number of services across different departments. AppFog acts as a layer that connects different clouds so all departments in an organization may deploy to where needed. As app development continues to simplify, Node.js can serve as a unifying way to launch their own services. AppFog, originally PHP Fog, has raised $9.8 mllion in two rounds. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.