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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: VMware and Dell Partner to Enable Cloud Foundry via #Crowbar

August 17, 2011 4 comments

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And the goodness just keeps on coming!

DellA few weeks ago, Dell (they company I work for) unleashed the power of the Dell developed, open source Crowbar software framework as a part of the announcement of the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution.  It allowed users to deploy a full OpenStack IaaS cloud on bare metal PowerEdge C servers in less than two hours (vs multiple days if done manually), and allows for a continuous integration mechanism for the stood up cloud. 

A week later, we announced the Dell | Cloudera Solution for Apache Hadoop, which also leverages the powerful Crowbar software to deploy a running Hadoop cluster on to bare metal PowerEdge C servers in less than a day, where it can take days or even weeks if deployed by other means.

So….

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?   Check.

Hadoop / Big Data?  Check.

But what about Platform as a Service (PaaS)?

Big time check.
  

VMware Cloud FoundryToday, VMware is announcing their development of a Cloud Foundry barclamp for Dell’s Crowbar software!

VMware’s Cloud Foundry is an open platform as a service (PaaS) project initiated by VMware designed to support multiple frameworks, multiple cloud providers, and multiple application services all on a cloud scale platform. It’s a project that is only a few months old, but one that has been getting outstanding interest from enterprises who want PaaS to be the new developer UI to their private cloud.  And Cloud Foundry is already powering real solutions.
  

And now it can be deployed quickly, simply, and automated with Dell’s Crowbar software.  
  

Crowbar, software that leverages OpsCode’s Chef configuration management tool,  allows users to get up and running on powerful technologies like Cloud Foundry, but actually does much more.  It actually does BIOS configuration, RAID configuration, network discovery, deploys Nagios and Ganglia, and more to enable an environment ideal for complex technologies.  It is also aware of changes in its environment, and adjusts to them in an automated manner.  (Learn more about Crowbar here.)
  

This is another win for open source in my book, and a real indicator of the impact open source is going to have on the next era of IT.

Dell's Crowbar SoftwareSo who’s the next Crowbar barclamp rockstar? 

You tell me.

You.  Crowbar.  Download.  Build barclamp.  Share.

I’d love to be telling your story here next.  🙂

More info:

  
Until next time,

JBGeorge
@jbgeorge

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

The “Open” Trend in Cloud…

May 5, 2011 Leave a comment

"Yes We're Open!"

C’mon – all the cool kids are doing it…

Going “open” that is.

How many announcements have we seen in the last few months having something to do with open technology when it comes to the cloud space?  With a great mix of business benefits AND customer / end user benefits, going open is certainly the latest trend.

I think this is a great and overdue market direction – standards are needed in this space, and I’m hopeful that this level of vendor response will help get us there.  Additionally, its important that we understand that open technology, while enabling users, should also benefit vendors, so that they can continue to invest in and support open products. 

Here’s a sampling of all the fantastic-ness.

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OpenStack

OpenStack

This one is near and dear to my heart since I’m the OpenStack business lead at Dell.  But my view is that OpenStack really kicked off this season’s “open” trend.  Announced last July, it’s an open source cloud platform that has gained serious momentum with over 60 vendors in the community and quite a few developers world wide.  With the latest release of their code base (codenamed Cactus), and their recent Design Summit (at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara – where else?), service providers and large enterprises are taking a serious look at OpenStack as a viable cloud solution.  (Learn more at www.OpenStack.org.  Also shameless plug for www.Dell.com/OpenStack.)

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http://www.OpenCompute.org

OpenCompute

Facebook helped launch this initiative as they strove to build a low cost, yet highly efficient computing infrastructure.  Partnering with other industry stalwarts like Dell and Rackspace, Facebook opened up the specs on the efficient servers that make up their environment, in an effort to encourage other companies to build energy efficient infrastructures.  (Learn more at www.opencompute.org.)

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http://www.CloudFoundry.com

VMware Cloud Foundry (Open PaaS)

With its aquisition of the SpringSource Java development framework, and of RabbitMQ, the cloud messaging technology, VMware makes a bold move into the cloud space by unveling Cloud Foundry as an open source “Platform as a Service”.   Focused on Java application developers , Cloud Foundry supports Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, and Rails, and allows developers a quick and easy way to get development platforms up and available. 

 Another plus – my good buddy Dave McCrory (@mccrory) is helping drive this initiative at VMware.  🙂  

(Learn more at www.cloudfoundry.com)

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openshift.redhat.com/app

OpenShift

Speaking of open PaaS, Red Hat announced its OpenShift Platform as a Service today.  Their focus is to produce exportable workloads that can be used via private cloud or public cloud, such as Amazon.  OpenShift will support Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby.  Ironically, the open source is not yet open source, but will be shortly.

(Learn more at openshift.redhat.com/app.)

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http://www.OpenFlow.org

OpenFlow

How can I continue without mentioning OpenFlow?  As many experts agree, the network will be one of the most critical components to cloud success.   Created to help drive innovation in networking, a number of vendors are investigating ways to add OpenFlow as a feature to their networking portfolio.   Dell, Nicira, and others are some interesting names in this space.  I’m hopeful we’ll hear some interesting news about commercial networking providers and OpenFlow as Interop kicks off next week.

(Learn more at www.openflow.org.)

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So what do you think should be next here?  Do you feel open sourcing cloud technologies advance us as an industry? 

Drop me a line or leave a comment – would love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time.

JOSEPH
@jbgeorge

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