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 (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 (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 (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 Keystone) 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 Nicira, Cisco, Citrix, Midokura 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 Keystone – Keystone, 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.”
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. See the Conference agenda [sched link] and register here [cvent link].
