Private Cloud Software Enhanced by Rackspace

The open source private cloud software at Rackspace Hosting has had new features added to it; the software is powered by OpenStack.

The key improvement to the cloud software is the new OpenCenter interface for deployment, configuration and operation. This interface is to be used for making functions easier to use, and this is done through making them executable on a point-and-click basis.

The director of strategy for Rackspace Private Cloud, Scott Sanchez, said: "We launched Rackspace Private Cloud about six months ago as a free, open source, portable version of our public cloud that includes all of the components and configuration necessary to turn vanilla OpenStack code into a Rackspace cloud. We're now following that up with an operations fabric that allows us to simplify execution as well as accelerate new features that we want to add over time."

High Availability is provided by OpenCenter, and offers API operation of high availability environments for OpenStack controller nodes; this is the first example.

Sanchez added: "We've been able to do high availability in the OpenStack controller environment up to now, but it was only available through manual execution of scripts and configuration. This makes it a point-and-click exercise, and OpenCenter will do the calculations and put all that together for you and turn it into a high-availability compute controller environment. And, there's a full set of APIs so that if the customer prefers a different management console, they could still take advantage of all the automation and do it with the tool of their choice."

A large customer base pays the San Antonia, Texas-based cloud provider for slowly increasing services for supporting operations, despite the fact that the Rackspace Private Cloud can be used free of charge; Sanchez commented that this is the company's "sweet spot."

A range of host operating systems (Ubuntu, Red Hat, Enterprise Linux, CentOS, etc.) can run the new offering from Rackspace, and the company has also issued over 1,375 code releases and over 8,400 corresponding unit tests that will cause no disruption to customers. Around 465 million API requests for cloud servers have also been reported by the company, and Sanchez said: "We are an operator first. We run clouds. So we know what it takes to make this stuff work and scale. This is the key reason why our customers are coming to us and asking us to help them with this journey. So, we deliver the whole package of software, hardware, operations and support." (CY) Link