Bridging Private and Public

Abiquo has become the latest entrant into the growing marketplace for hybrid cloud service management tools, with the specific target of building the bridge needed between two popular and widespread cloud environments – VMware in the private cloud space, and Amazon’s public cloud services.

It has also appointed a new CEO, entrepreneur and former NTRglobal and Solsoft Chairman and CEO, Gilles Samoun, to spearhead this new market focus.

For what could be an important market for both Cloud Service Providers and large end users, both of which are likely to have services in both camps and looking for a bridge between them, Abiquo has given it the rather humble title of Version 2.6 of its cloud management platform. That aside, however, the objective is one that should attract the interest of both user groups.

The goal is to provide a single platform for service providers and enterprises to manage and control their entire private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructure. The new release now allows service providers and enterprises to integrate and manage public cloud service Amazon EC2 with their existing cloud infrastructure from a single interface layer and console.

The company is, however, not just hitching its wagon to the VMware private cloud marketplace. The latest version also supports Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 and Oracle hypervisors, along with support for NFS managed storage solutions.

The new version comes with enhanced APIs designed to make it quicker and easier for service providers and enterprises to develop new cloud services and integrate them into their existing cloud offerings. It also has simplified multiple backup, with provides a consistent, simple interface for users to set multiple backup schedules and stay informed on backup status – no matter what the underlying technology.

With a new, simplified workflow, business administrators can now also remain in control of resources they consume, whether public or private. This can also be integrated to existing business workflow systems and email approval processes.

Newly appointed Samoun sees v2.6, becoming the bridge between the public and private cloud worlds of Amazon and VMware, enabling customers to move to one and provision the other, seamlessly, through one console and single interface.

“We have all seen the way that the market is evolving and Amazon not only holds the lion’s share of the enterprise market but wants to increase it by challenging VMware. So, now we enable Abiquo users to utilise both VMware and Amazon seamlessly and with ease,” he said.

The company has also appointed Ian Finlay, formerly Group Chief Information Officer at Claranet, as VP of Products. He has experience of implementing Abiquo’s cloud management platform whilst at Claranet.

“Abiquo 2.6 delivers new opportunities for service providers to create new service offerings,” he said. “Our integration with Amazon AWS lets service providers embrace commodity cloud services, whilst adding value with their hosted solutions and existing management services. For large enterprises, the ability to manage resources on multiple on-premise systems and Amazon through one interface provides security, control and insight across a complex infrastructure landscape.”