OpenStack ‘Diablo’ Release Expands Networking, Will Power Global Clouds

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6870023&lang=en" />

Fourth community-driven software release extends cloud operating system capabilities; will power production clouds globally

OpenStack Dashboard summary screen for self-service users, which shows your active services and resource usage. (Graphic: Business Wire)

SAN ANTONIO--()--OpenStack™, the open source cloud operating system, will today release "Diablo," the fourth version of its community-driven software, with nearly 70 new features and enhancements making it possible for a broader community of users to deploy OpenStack clouds in production on a global scale. OpenStack Diablo allows users to automate and control pools of compute, storage and networking resources across a global footprint and multiple datacenters with increased scale, performance and networking capabilities. There have been nearly 50,000 downloads from the central code repository, and production cloud environments are coming online across the globe.

“With 58 million users of MercadoLibre.com and growing rapidly, we need to provide our teams instant access to computing resources without heavy administrative layers. With OpenStack, our internal users can instantly provision what they need without having to wait for a system administrator,” said Alejandro Comisario, Infrastructure Senior Engineer, MercadoLibre, the largest online trading platform in Latin America. “With our success running OpenStack Compute in production, we plan to roll OpenStack Diablo out more broadly across the company, and have appreciated the community support in this venture, especially through the OpenStack Forums, where we are also global moderators.”

Updates to Compute, Storage and Image Service

Diablo adds new features in the three key areas of computing, image service and storage. The latest OpenStack release delivered user-requested features required for enterprise private cloud implementations and global service providers, including networking features, scale and overall usability improvements, taking advantage of OpenStack's pluggable architecture.

  • OpenStack Compute (code-name Nova) - New capabilities include a distributed scheduler allowing for virtual machines to be deployed globally, a high-availability networking mode to prevent downtime if a primary server fails and support for a new authentication system, OpenStack Identity Management.
  • OpenStack Object Storage (code-name Swift) - New multi-cluster container sync allows a user to choose on a container by container basis which data to replicate in order to a separate cluster located in multiple geographical locations.
  • OpenStack Image Service (code-name Glance) - Updates to the Image Service include new filtering and searching capabilities through the API, a highly requested feature by service providers who support a large number of customers globally.

New Dashboard, Identity Management System and Networking Capabilities

In addition to the three existing core projects: OpenStack Compute, Object Storage and Image Service, two new projects were incubated with the Diablo release, including a user interface (OpenStack Dashboard) to manage OpenStack services and a unified identity management system (OpenStack Identity) that makes the cloud work with existing authentication systems. Both projects were introduced in Diablo and promoted to ‘core’ for the forthcoming Essex version, while a new networking project Quantum, led by Cisco, Citrix, Midokura, Nicira and Rackspace, is expected to be incubated during the Essex release cycle.

  • OpenStack Dashboard - The new Dashboard project, led by Nebula Inc., enables administrators and users to access and provision cloud-based resources through a self-service portal.
  • OpenStack Identity (code-name Keystone) - OpenStack Identity, a new project led by Rackspace, provides unified authentication across all OpenStack projects and integrates with existing, internal authentication systems.
  • OpenStack Quantum - Newly incubated project Quantum provides an API to dynamically request and configure virtual networks, and the Quantum API supports extensions to provide advanced network capabilities.

"The OpenStack Dashboard project provides a way to visualize OpenStack and many of its capabilities. The addition of an official web based user interface will help to drive wider adoption of OpenStack," said Devin Carlen, Project Technical Lead for Dashboard, Founder and VP of Engineering at Nebula Inc, a company recently launched by several of OpenStack’s founders that is building an enterprise “private cloud appliance” based on OpenStack. "We want to ensure that the OpenStack user interface architecture is flexible enough to support the requirements of service providers, businesses, and the rich ecosystem of emerging products and services that are compatible with OpenStack.”

"Our goal with Keystone is to allow people to download, install, and run OpenStack in their environments using their own, local usernames and passwords. We want that experience to be easy and seamless," said Ziad Salwalha, Director of Product at Rackspace and PTL of Keystone. "We support a number of backends today and intend to add support for systems people are running, like Microsoft's Active Directory. We're getting demand for and planning on supporting open standards like OAUTH and SAML which will allow federation in the future where you can seamlessly burst into other OpenStack-compatible clouds when you need the extra horsepower. We expect The Rackspace Cloud to be supporting the Keystone API soon."

OpenStack Design Summit & Conference

The fall 2011 OpenStack Design Summit & Conference is taking place October 3-7 at the Boston Intercontinental Hotel. The Design Summit will bring together nearly 300 OpenStack developers and key contributors to determine the roadmap for the Essex release, while the Conference will draw a broader audience of users and the technology ecosystem to discuss the state of the project. Conference keynote presentations will be given by headline sponsors Dell, HP, Nebula and organizer Rackspace, and the event will feature presentations from OpenStack users ACENS, CERN, MercadoLibre and NeCTAR Research Cloud. Register for the conference here.

Supporting Resources

For the latest news and information, follow OpenStack on the web at:

About OpenStack™

OpenStack is a large-scale, open source cloud operating system and global community established to drive industry standards, end cloud lock-in and speed the adoption of cloud technologies by service providers and enterprises. More than 100 participating organizations and over 1,500 in the development community are currently contributing to OpenStack, which was named the fastest growing open source cloud project by Black Duck Software in 2010. OpenStack currently includes three core, interrelated projects: OpenStack Object Storage, a fully distributed object store, OpenStack Compute, a scalable compute provisioning engine and OpenStack Image Service, an image registry and delivery service. For more information and to join the community, visit OpenStack.org.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements concerning expected development of the OpenStack project; the acceptance of OpenStack technology as an industry standard; anticipated operational and financial benefits from any development of the OpenStack project; the participation of other companies or individuals in the OpenStack project; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits from the OpenStack project may not materialize because the underlying technology is not reliable or generally compatible with industry standards; there are changes in technology that adversely affect the adoption of the standards, and other risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, filed with the SEC on August 8, 2011. Except as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6870023&lang=en

Contacts

Rackspace Hosting
Lauren Sell, +1-713-398-8700

Release Summary

OpenStack releases Diablo, the fourth community-driven, open source cloud software release.

Contacts

Rackspace Hosting
Lauren Sell, +1-713-398-8700