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The Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution: An Update!

September 18, 2011 Leave a comment

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Hello fellow cloud fans!

The Cloud is Here

The Cloud is Here (Note: I took this pic outside one day - no doctoring at all! Two jet trails created an arrow pointing at a cloud!)

There’s been a lot going on with the OpenStack team at Dell – and its been wreaking havoc with my blogging time!  

It’s been about six weeks since we announced our Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, the market’s first OpenStack cloud solution featuring hardware, software and services. 

And the movement has been fast and furious!

Here’s a quick update…
  

The Real Deal

This is the most exciting development from our team.

Real customers solving real problems with a real OpenStack solution from Dell… TODAY. 

  
Many of you have reached out, learned about the power and agility of the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution, and have stepped up to working with Dell to get OpenStack going in their environments.  It’s awesome that we’re able to partner with a number of you out there on some of the coolest, new technology out there.

With our long history with OpenStack (since Day 1), our cloud optimized PowerEdge C server line, and the power of the Dell Crowbar software enabling customers to get a multi-node OpenStack cloud on bare metal in less than two hours, this solution is just making a lot of sense for many of our customers.

In fact, looking for some “rubber meets the road” info? 

Look no further than Dell OpenStack customer, DreamHost – they’re a great example of how partnering with Dell can get you REAL progress on OpenStack. 

DreamHost and the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution

DreamHost working with Dell on OpenStack!

Check out the FULL CASE STUDY here – http://i.dell.com/sites/content/shared-content/solutions/en/Documents/dreamhost-openstack-cloud-case-study.pdf
  

  
  
Crowbar

Crowbar has really taken off since  we announced it with the release of the Dell OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solution. 

In case you don’t know what Crowbar is, it’s a Dell- developed software framework designed to enable customers to deploy OpenStack quickly, as well as be a continuous integration engine for your sustaining OpenStack cloud.  It’s based on Opscode’s Chef tool, and is available as open source code for anyone to download (link to site at end of blog).

  • I mentioned DreamHost as a Dell OpenStack customer – they are actually using Crowbar as a means to deploy their Ceph storage technology.  They have taken Crowbar and developed their own “barclamp” to deploy their technology.  (A barclamp is a Crowbar module that performs a function like BIOS update, network discovery, etc.)
      
  • The Cloud Foundry team at VMware has done the same – taken the Crowbar software framework and written barclamps that will deploy the open source PaaS.
      
  • Check out Rob Hirschfeld’s Blog to learn more about some of the tech details on what’s happening with Crowbar.  Link at the end of this blog.
      

And a whole lot more – Diablo, the Essex Summit, OpenStack training at Dell

Our team’s are also feverishly working on Diablo support for our OpenStack offering.  (FYI – the Diablo release of OpenStack is slated to go public next week on Sep 22.)  We’ll actually be cooperating with a number of partners over the next week on enabling Diablo – keep an eye out – you may see some tech blogging going on about this soon.

And then there’s the upcoming OpenStack Conference and Design Summit, to be held in Boston the week of Oct 3.  Dell has been a major part of EVERY OpenStack design summit, and this one is no different, as Dell is a conference sponsor of the event.  All the usual Dell OpenStack celebrities will be there – along with a few new ones – participating in a variety of capacities at the event, so buckle up for some real insight based on real world OpenStack feedback.

Finally, if you haven’t heard, the OpenStack community announced a number of trainings to get users up to speed on the cloud technology.  There are a number of trainings planned, including sessions in Boston, London, and Dell headquarters in Austin.  If you’re interested in learning more about the training happening at Dell in Austin, check it out here http://www.cvent.com/events/rackspace-training-for-openstack-austin/event-summary-77838e10ba284088b4628026f2cd9158.aspx

More info

Being the marketing director, I want to be sure you have access to a number of the wicked cool stuff out there on our OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solutiona, Crowbar, and more.

Whew!  Told ya it would be a lot…

OK, that should get you up to speed. 

As always, feel free to contact us at OpenStack@Dell.com or leave a comment.

On my next blog, I’ll get you an update on where we are with our new Apache Hadoop solution!

Until next time,

JBG
@jbgeorge

Categories: Cloud Computing, Innovation, open source, openstack, Tech Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

THIS JUST IN: Dell Announces the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution

July 26, 2011 6 comments

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On the heels of the one year anniversary of the OpenStack open source cloud operating system – here’s some awesome news…

Dell (the company I work for) announces the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution, the market’s first hardware + software + services OpenStack solution for customers seeking to build out their own OpenStack clouds!

Let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?
  

Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution

Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution

Hardware (Dell PowerEdge C cloud optimized servers)

 Built on a reference architecture honed since DAY ONE of the OpenStack movement, the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution offers a hardware configuration featuring cloud optimized Dell PowerEdge C servers.  Dell has built cloud infrastructure for some of the biggest names in the world, like Facebook and Microsoft Azure, and have used those learnings to develop the highly dense, power-efficient PowerEdge C servers that the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution has been architected with.

  

Software (Dell Crowbar deploying and managing the OpenStack cloud platform)

When Dell began testing OpenStack in mid 2010, we were installing it, testing it, blowing it away, reinstalling it, tweaking it, blowing it away, reinstalling it… you get the picture.  And it wasn’t trivial.  These deployments took considerable time, effort, and expertise, so we developed the Dell Crowbar software framework extending Opscode’s Chef automation, which can deploy MULTI-NODE OpenStack clouds in hours or even minutes, rather than days when done manually.   (Anyone remember our team deploying a 6 node Nova and Swift OpenStack deployment in 29 minutes at CloudConnect?)   Crowbar enables BIOS and RAID setup and configuration, network setup, deploys open source tools like Nagios and Ganglia for monitoring, and much more.  

And hey, we’re a community here, right?  So here’s what the OpenStack community has been waiting to hear – Dell has now open sourced Crowbar!  We’ve made it available to the open source community via our Github site, which is linked below.   My partner in crime, Rob Hirschfeld, goes into Crowbar deep on his blog, so I’ve provided a link to his site below as well.  (FYI – we are still working through some of the legal aspects of BIOS and RAID capabilities, but decided to open source the rest of Crowbar while we work it out.)

And speaking of support…

    

Services (Dell Services + Rackspace Cloud Builders)

After a year of being in OpenStack, we’ve built up some expertise, so Dell Services, along with our partner Rackspace Cloud Builders, will be offering a plethora of services to help you make your OpenStack cloud a reality.

  • Consulting
  • Deployment
  • Training
  • Support for the entire solution – HW, Crowbar, OpenStack, etc
  • And a host of other services direct from Dell Services

When you get the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution, you can call Dell for support on any aspect of the solution, and we’ll help you figure it out, with our crack support teams, our OpenStack engineers, and our OpenStack partners.

And those are the basics. 

  

Fast. Easy. Now. The Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution

Fast. Easy. Now. The Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution

A few more comments….

Let me just say – I am proud that we’ve delivered this solution to market, but even PROUDER to be part of a company had the vision to see the potential of OpenStack on Day One.  Yes, that’s a big deal to me.

I’d like to call out a number of partners we’ve worked with to get to this point – Rackspace, Citrix, Opscode, Canonical, Intel, and others – the community is a big deal in OpenStack, and it’s great to have their support in this announcement.   I’m also very happy that one of our first Dell OpenStack customers, DreamHost, is a part of this announcement as well with a full case study on how they’re doing OpenStack with Dell.  (HINT: they’re neck deep in Crowbar and loving it!) 

We plan to celebrate the announcement big time at OSCON, so if you’re here, come by the Dell booth – demos, gear, giveaways, etc.   And our breakout session will be on Thursday (10:40am in room E-141) – “Prying Open the Cloud with Dell Crowbar and OpenStack” – Rob will present the deep down details on Crowbar. 
(And if you want to get in on the celebration, feel free to tweet the news and your thoughts – be sure to use hashtags #Dell, #OpenStack and #Crowbar…)

 

So What’s Next?

Time for YOU to start using this.  The Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution, Crowbar, all of it.   Talk to your Dell rep, emaial us at OpenStack@Dell.com, download Crowbar, start building Crowbar barclamps, discuss it in the forums, etc…  and get started building OpenStack clouds with Dell.
  

More info:

Until next time,

JBG
@jbgeorge

Categories: Cloud Computing, E-Progress, Innovation, open source, openstack, Tech Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,