SUSE Cloud 3 now available, based on OpenStack Havana release

SUSE has announced the general availability of SUSE Cloud 3, the next version of the original enterprise-ready OpenStack distribution for building Infrastructure-as-a-Service private clouds. SUSE Cloud 3 provides customers with greater flexibility to cost effectively deploy private clouds with existing virtualised data centres by delivering full support for VMware vSphere through integration with VMware vCenter Server.

“A top 10 contributor to the OpenStack project and a platinum member of the OpenStack Foundation, SUSE has proven its commitment to driving the rapid innovation and stability of the OpenStack community,” said Nils Brauckmann, president and general manager of SUSE. “SUSE is focused on making it easier for the enterprise user to adopt an OpenStack-based private cloud solution, delivering a rock-solid OpenStack distribution in SUSE Cloud 3 that is easy to set up and use in any enterprise production environment.”

Gary Chen, research manager for cloud and virtualisation system software at IDC, said, “Success for OpenStack in the enterprise will depend on several factors, including ease of installation and management and support for mixed hypervisors. In addition, the growth and openness of the OpenStack community and APIs has created a diverse ecosystem which will help organisations fit their existing technology, as well as new technology, within their OpenStack clouds. SUSE Cloud 3, based on the latest OpenStack Havana release, includes many enhancements that address these needs for the enterprise.”

SUSE Cloud 3 is based on the OpenStack Havana release and includes full support for Orchestration (Heat) and Telemetry (Ceilometer). It also provides:
· Improved productivity and resource efficiency. The Orchestration module automates the control and coordination of multiple virtual machines based on a set of predefined templates. Through Orchestration, the necessary infrastructure resources – such as servers, floating IPs, volumes and security groups required for a specific application – are identified as well as the relationships between these resources, facilitating the programmatic management of the cloud.
· Insight into the usage of a private cloud. Telemetry provides metering and monitoring of cloud activities measuring usage by infrastructure resource and consumer. The data collected can be used to feed billing systems, improve service to end users, or ensure the performance and ease the management burden of maintaining the cloud infrastructure. For instance, the Telemetry module integrates with Orchestration's autoscaling service to provision and de-provision resources, as necessary.
· Ability to maximise current virtualisation investments. Many organisations have spent years building VMware virtualised data centers and developing the skills to manage this environment. Enterprises with large VMware vSphere deployments that want to take advantage of the enterprise capabilities and openness of OpenStack-based SUSE Cloud can now do so while leveraging their existing investments. SUSE also supports VMware NSX network virtualisation.
· Simplified installation and easier ongoing management and cloud upgrade. The rapid implementation of a private cloud platform is critical for enterprises trying to improve business agility and speed service delivery. SUSE Cloud 3 includes an installation framework based on the Crowbar project that automates the management and deployment of the cloud infrastructure. SUSE Cloud 3 adds support for upgrading the cloud infrastructure to further simplify ongoing management. This helps enterprises achieve a faster return on their private cloud investment while having the flexibility to tailor their cloud's configuration.
· Access to the continually expanding cloud partner ecosystem. SUSE works with companies within the OpenStack community to provide enterprises with a private cloud platform that can be integrated into their existing solutions or augmented by additional capabilities to meet their specific needs. SUSE Cloud 3 includes support for OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder), OpenStack Networking (Neutron) and the plug-in model of these projects, and it supports all OpenStack APIs to ease the deployment of partner solutions within the cloud environment.

“VMware is delivering a proven portfolio of enterprise-grade technologies to support customer choice in building OpenStack clouds,” said Dan Wendlandt, director of product management for OpenStack at VMware. “VMware and SUSE have long partnered to simplify our customers' deployments. Our products work together seamlessly and are well supported. With this announcement, SUSE and VMware are bringing the powerful combination of VMware's technologies to customers deploying OpenStack with SUSE Cloud 3.”

Mark McLaughlin, senior director, Office of the CTO, at EMC Corporation, said, “Joint customers have expressed interest in enterprise solutions that will enable them to use OpenStack. The inclusion of OpenStack drivers for EMC into SUSE Cloud 3 enables customers to take advantage of industry-leading EMC® VNX® solutions to meet their OpenStack storage needs.”

Alban Richard, CEO of UshareSoft, said, “UShareSoft and SUSE worked closely together during the development of the Plug2watt hybrid cloud solution. Together, SUSE Cloud and our UForge software factory and app store platform offer an integrated enterprise-class solution for secure hybrid cloud deployments.”