IBM Rolls Out OpenStack Services for Hybrid Clouds
, IBM has announced that it will make OpenStack the technological basis for all of its cloud services. Called IBM Cloud OpenStack Services, the new initiative will provide a suite of OpenStack-based software services for hybrid cloud clients.
The new platform will allow customers to integrate applications and data across different hybrid clouds, including public, dedicated and local cloud environments without having to worry about customizing technology for their specific deployment needs or cross-vendor compatibility issues. Big Blue said that the new offering will help increase productivity for developers working across multiple clouds.
Opening the Clouds
OpenStack is a free, open source cloud-computing platform used by enterprises as an infrastructure-as-a-service solution. The OpenStack ecosystem is backed by its own non-profit foundation and is available under the terms of the Apache license. On Monday, Mirantis, one of the founding members of the OpenStack foundation, announced a new partnership development program for OpenStack compatible components that includes 47 infrastructure technology companies.
With IBM Cloud OpenStack Services, developers and IBM clients will be able to launch applications on local, on-premises installations and public clouds hosted on the SoftLayer infrastructure, without having to rewrite code or change configurations. That allows developers to build and test applications in public clouds, and then take advantage of the interoperability of the OpenStack environment to deploy them across multiple clouds.
"Open technologies are paving the way for broader cloud adoption and enabling companies like Virdata to confidently deploy clouds without the fear of vendor lock-in," said Martin Braem, Virdata Lead for DevOps, Support and Professional Services in a statement. "IBM Cloud OpenStack Services gives us the ability to easily move OpenStack workloads across hybrid clouds."
Adoption of cloud technologies appears to be on the rise. However, the success of cloud-based systems is also generating new problems for enterprise IT departments. The sudden creation of hundreds of clouds has meant that enterprise data and applications may be housed in multiple locations, including traditional data centers, which can create compatibility and interoperability nightmares.
New Tools, Faster Deployment
IBM said its new public cloud services will offer developers and clients new capabilities, including expanded access to the public clouds, enabling companies to significantly reduce the time required to deploy and integrate application environments.
In addition to reduced deployment times, the new services promise to improve cloud security as well by allowing companies to monitor their cloud environments. IBM said it would also provide enterprises with security controls to help them run their workloads on trusted hardware.
In addition, the services will help developers quickly create and scale applications that can then be delivered to any OpenStack Powered Platform. As part of the service, IBM said it will manage the OpenStack environment and infrastructure, which will be hosted in IBM’s global cloud data centers. That will allow developers and clients to better manage workloads including hosted enterprise applications, analytics, and Web and mobile applications, according to IBM.