OpenStack Cloud Management Tools Unveiled by IBM

Private cloud management tools have been released by IBM in a move towards building the entirety of its cloud software and services based on "open cloud architecture." The open-source OpenStack cloud operating environment is the basis for the private-cloud management tools.

IBM's new software (released at its Las Vegas Pulse conference) simplifies the deployment, monitoring and control of different compute, storage and network cloud services over hybrid cloud environments. Additionally, this does not require the development of interfaces for each service.

The senior vice president of software at IBM, Robert LeBlanc, said: "History has shown that open source and standards are hugely beneficial to end customers and are a major catalyst for innovation. Just as standards and open source revolutionized the Web and Linux, they will also have a tremendous impact on cloud computing.

IT vendors such as Intel, Dell, Cisco, VMware and others support the open source Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) project from OpenStack. Software unveiled through the Apache software license is managed by the OpenStack Foundation.

IBM describes itself as "one of the top code and design contributors" to OpenStack projects, and joined the OpenStack Foundation a year ago as a Platinum sponsor.

A graphical interface is offered via the IBM SmartCloud Orchestrator, and with this, businesses can merge and distribute different cloud services via the OpenStack platform. Operational costs will henceforth be lowered (as a result of automating application deployment and life-cycle management), according to IBM. This also makes end-user utilization of cloud services easier through the self-service portal. It is later this year that the IBM SmartCloud Orchestrator will be available.

A new version of the IBM SmartCloud Monitoring Application Insight tool was also released, and can be used for monitoring the performance and availability of cloud applications. The IBM SmartCloud ControlDesk and IBM Endpoint Manager have also been integrated, and the latter is available for managing cloud services for compliance, regulation and security purposes. Furthermore, two beta programs were also unveiled by IBM in which analytics are used to predict changes in the scale and use of cloud services. (CY) Link