SUSE Starts Cloud 2.0 Beta Testing

SUSE has launched a beta release of SUSE Cloud 2.0 to give users an early look at the company’s latest enterprise-ready technology for building private clouds.

Announced at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention 2013 (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon, SUSE Cloud 2.0 is based the open source OpenStack Grizzly release – the latest version of the OpenStack project. SUSE Cloud 2.0 features enhanced installation and management, additional hypervisor support options, and hardened technology from OpenStack projects for networking and storage, the company said. Additional support for partner solutions such as Cisco and EMC will further enable enterprises to deploy private clouds that fit their existing infrastructure, SUSE officials said.

OpenStack foundation

SUSE Cloud 2.0 builds on OpenStack to deliver advanced cloud technology and the broadest solution choice to ensure smooth deployment of a private cloud into an enterprise data centre. The SUSE Cloud Administration Server has been augmented for greater scalability through integration with the latest release of the open source deployment framework Crowbar and an updated user interface. To enable SUSE customers to maximise their previous technology investments, SUSE Cloud 2.0 continues its mixed hypervisor approach, adding full support for Microsoft Hyper-V and a technical preview of VMware ESXi.

“SUSE Cloud 2.0 is the next version of SUSE Cloud, the original enterprise-ready OpenStack distribution for building Infrastructure-as-a-Service private clouds,” said Michael Miller, vice president of global alliances and marketing for SUSE, in a statement. “The beta programme helps battle-harden the software for customers as they deploy proof of concepts with the latest technology, and it allows selected partners to ensure integration of their solutions with SUSE Cloud. Integrating this outside testing with our well-established QA and development process will expedite the availability and enhance the quality of SUSE Cloud 2.0.”

In addition, SUSE Cloud 2.0 expands cloud storage options via support for the OpenStack Block Storage, Cinder. Cinder enables users to provide persistent block storage at the virtual machine level. Cinder is also extensible with third-party solutions, so enterprises can plug in devices from their preferred storage vendors. SUSE is working with partners such as Coraid, EMC, Inktank and NetApp to give SUSE Cloud users a broad choice of supported block storage plug-ins.

SUSE Cloud 2.0 will also include the Ceph Rados Gateway providing compatible Swift and Amazon S3 (Simplified Storage Service) APIs for block storage using Ceph. Support for Amazon EC2 and S3 APIs helps companies choosing to deploy hybrid clouds by providing easy access to Ceph’s fully redundant data storage infrastructure for storing or retrieving any amount of data in the cloud.

Networking features

Networking features in SUSE Cloud 2.0 are augmented via full support of OpenStack Networking, Neutron. SUSE Cloud delivers networking-as-a-service capabilities that offer scalable network management, an API to build rich network topologies, and the ability to create advanced network services. SUSE Cloud 2.0 networking will be plug-in enabled for extended capabilities offered by Cisco, Midokura, Open Vswitch and VLAN bridging.

“SUSE Cloud is the first distribution to integrate the OpenStack Cinder drivers for AoE [ATA over Ethernet] and Coraid EtherCloud that Coraid contributed to the Grizzly release of OpenStack,” said Kevin Brown, chief executive of Coraid, in a statement. “These drivers will enable SUSE customers to build OpenStack clouds that seamlessly leverage Coraid’s platform to deliver scalable, automated storage services.”

“Our customers are looking for promising enterprise solutions as they include software-defined networking in their self-service clouds,” said Dan Dumitriu, chief executive of Midokura, a provider of network virtualisation technology and the maker of MidoNet, a virtual network solution for OpenStack and CloudStack, in a statement. “Working with SUSE to integrate MidoNet with SUSE Cloud 2.0 will provide joint customers with a proven and powerful solution to advance the building of private clouds.”

SUSE Cloud 2.0 is scheduled for release in the autumn following beta testing. For details on how to join the beta, contact SUSE at cloud@suse.com.

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Originally published on eWeek.