SUSE Cloud 2.0 Beta Begins; Offers Updates for Open Enterprise-Class Private Clouds

Grazed from Suse. Author: PR Announcement.

SUSE is beta testing its enterprise-ready SUSE Cloud 2.0 for private clouds. SUSE 2.0, based on OpenStack’s Grizzly project sports improved installation, better management and adds support for hypervisor options.

“The beta program helps battle harden the software . . . and allows selected partners to ensure integration of their solutions with SUSE Cloud,” said Michael Miller, SUSE vice president of global alliances and marketing in a statement. SUSE Cloud is an open source enterprise cloud computing platform that enables easy deployment and seamless management of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) private clouds…

The goal of SUSE Cloud is to make it cheaper and easier to provision new workloads using a dynamic and flexible cloud infrastructure. SUSE Cloud’s image repository, coupled with SUSE Cloud’s service catalog and self-service provisioning capabilities, lets IT easily create, secure and publish catalogs of services for various line of business users.

SUSE Cloud 2.0 adds full support for Microsoft Hyper-V and a technical preview of VMware ESXi. For storage, SUSE Cloud 2.0’s support for Amazon EC2 and S3 APIs offers easy access to Ceph’s fully redundant data storage infrastructure. It also adds full support for OpenStack Block Storage, Cinder, for persistent block storage at the virtual machine level. Cinder can be integrated with third-party solutions, allowing IT to simply plug in devices from their preferred storage vendors, Miller added.

The SUSE Cloud Administration Server also has a new UI and boosts scalability thanks to its integration with Crowbar, the latest release of the open source deployment framework.

SUSE Cloud also offers an API so enterprises can build rich network topologies and create advanced network services. SUSE Cloud 2.0 networking will offer plug-ins for extended capabilities offered by Cisco, Midokura, Open Vswitch and VLAN bridging, officials said.

These additions augment features from SUSE Cloud 1.0, including:
Automated Install Process. Thanks to integration with the Crowbar Project, predefined scripts enable an automated install process that not only makes it easier to rapidly configure a cloud environment, but also makes it simpler to add new compute and storage nodes.
Optimized Resource Provisioning and Deployment. Centralized resource tracking provides insight into activities and capacity of the cloud infrastructure for optimized automated deployment of services.
Secure Provisioning. Identity and authentication for multi-tenant, role-based provisioning and access control enables IT to securely provision multiple departments and users on the same cloud infrastructure.
Self-Service Portal. A user dashboard pushes the management of resources closer to the end users, and allows them to configure and deploy services as necessary, and track their own resource consumption.
Easily Accessible Repositories. SUSE Cloud 2.0’s image repository allows the IT staff and business staff to determine and publish, as a catalog, standardized virtual machines that are predefined configurations for specific purposes or services that are used regularly.

SUSE Cloud 2.0 also offers a rich library of open APIs provides integration of third-party software, such as network management, ticketing and billing solutions.

Aside from its open technologies, SUSE is also working with third-party partners. Work with Cisco and EMC, among others, SUSE aims to help IT deploy private clouds that fit their existing systems, Miller added. SUSE is also working with Coraid, Inktank and NetApp to give SUSE Cloud users a broad choice of supported block storage plug-ins. SUSE Cloud 2.0 will also include the Ceph Rados Gateway providing compatible Swift and Amazon S3 (Simplified Storage Service) APIs for block storage using Ceph.

“Integrating this outside testing with our well-established QA and development process will expedite the availability and enhance the quality of SUSE Cloud 2.0,” Miller added.

Networking features in SUSE Cloud 2.0 are enhanced via full support of OpenStack Networking, Neutron. SUSE Cloud delivers networking-as-a-service capabilities that offer scalable network management.

SUSE Cloud 2.0 is scheduled for release in the fall.