What is OpenStack?
OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard (like GUI front-end tool) that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
OpenStack at its core is an open source project - it's free code. But what makes OpenStack come alive are the vendors that have contributed to make that raw code and then turned it into a product businesses can use.
Some companies have used OpenStack as the basis for their public clouds; Rackspace, for example, has proven that OpenStack can power a massive, geographically distributed cloud. Others are packaging the components that make up OpenStack into an easy-to-digest product sold to enterprises for building their own private cloud.
What is PowerVC?
IBM Power Virtualization Center (PowerVC) is a new tool that lets you manage virtual machines (VM) deployed on pools of POWER servers. Support is provided for both AIX and Linux on Power VMs.
PowerVC is based on OpenStack, which is open-source cloud management software backed by significant industry support.
PowerVC is designed to simplify the management of virtual resources in IBM Power Systems environments.
PowerVC has a powerful yet simple and intuitive GUI and a deep integration with IBM Power Virtualization Management (PowerVM®) virtualization technologies. PowerVC enables virtualization without limits for the IBM Power Systems family of servers running IBM AIX®, IBM i, or IBM PowerLinuxTM.
Why OpenStack for PowerVC?
One of the big differences between PowerVC and other cloud management solutions is the use of OpenStack as a foundation.
The overall goal for PowerVC was to provide robust management for clouds built on IBM Power Systems. Managing a cloud-computing infrastructure requires a different approach than managing a traditional IT infrastructure
IBM identified several key architectural requirements for this product:
The management software had to encompass servers, storage, and networking. The management silos of the past simply did not meet the needs of a cloud environment.
The management architecture needed to be flexible, reliable, and scalable. A management architecture based on a loosely coupled service-oriented architecture with well-defined interfaces fulfills this requirement well. The general concept was a kernel of core services surrounded by plug-in modules to provide management of specific resources. The management application also needed to scale both vertically and horizontally.
The architecture had to be adaptable to allow expansion to new resource types and new management operations without requiring changes to the underlying architecture.
OpenStack fits these requirements well. OpenStack has the concept of drivers to support different resources (plug-ability), a built in foundation of middleware (service-oriented architecture) and well defined APIs tying everything together. There is an extensive open source community around OpenStack and it has a well-established governance model, and design tenets based on a loosely coupled, resilient architecture that scales horizontally.
There was another pragmatic reason for IBM to use OpenStack as the base for PowerVC: by building on OpenStack, IBM was able to get PowerVC to the market much more quickly and spent more energy working on capabilities with higher client value rather than building infrastructure “plumbing”.
It is important to note that PowerVC is a solution based on OpenStack, it is not OpenStack.
IBM built PowerVC based on the OpenStack architecture using OpenStack components, but IBM also provides enhancements and components that are not part of OpenStack, such as the management user interface and the Platform Enterprise Grid Optimizer (Platform EGO).
These extensions are designed to provide additional capability for our clients compared to the base capabilities provided by OpenStack. IBM contributes to the OpenStack community, but some of our enhancements will remain proprietary to IBM.
PowerVC is more than just OpenStack for Power. While other companies have delivered OpenStack offerings that are just big bags of technology, IBM built PowerVC on OpenStack technology to deliver a virtualization management solution for Power Systems.
As they say, “the proof is in the pudding” By building PowerVC on OpenStack, IBM has been able to deliver two releases in one year. This would have been impossible building it from scratch.
Why they’re important: IBM publicly announced that OpenStack would be a central part of the company’s cloud plans moving forward. Since then, though it’s unclear just how big of a part OpenStack plays in the company’s cloud plans.
IBM has certainly been committed to contributing toward the development of OpenStack. IBM is one of the leading contributors to the project, along with every other company on this list. IBM is using its experience in working with enterprise customers to improve areas such as quality assurance and aligning the OpenStack API to key standards. But, the company has not made OpenStack central to its own products it sells. IBM bought SoftLayer, an IaaS provider, and is in the process of expanding OpenStack support in SoftLayer’s cloud. Since that OpenStack announcement IBM has also made commitments to Cloud Foundry, another open source project for application development. And it has announced BlueMix, a PaaS offering that’s still in its early stages.
SoftLayer, an IBM Company, provides cloud Infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centers and network points of presence around the world. Our customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.
Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Our unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.
SoftLayer was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. We were acquired by IBM in July, 2013.
Bluemix, IBM Bluemix is a cloud Platform as a service (PaaS) developed by IBM. It supports several programming languages and services as well as integrated DevOps to build, run, deploy and manage applications on the cloud. Bluemix is based on Cloud Foundry open technology and runs on SoftLayer infrastructure.
It enables organizations and developers to quickly and easily create, deploy, and manage applications on the cloud.
Cloud Terminologies,
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
Cloud infrastructure services in which a virtualized environment is delivered as a service by the cloud provider. This infrastructure can include servers, network equipment, and software, including a complete desktop environment such as Windows or Linux.
Platform as a Service (PaaS):
Cloud platform services, whereby the computing platform (operating system and associated services) is delivered as a service over the internet by the provider.
Software as a Service (SaaS):
Cloud application services, whereby applications are delivered over the internet by the provider so the applications don't have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer's computers. SaaS providers were previously referred to as application service providers.
Private cloud:
Services offered over the internet or over a private internal network to select users. These services are not available to the general public.
Public cloud:
Services offered over the public internet. These services are available to anyone who wants to purchase the service.
Hybrid cloud:
The combination of a public cloud provider (such as AWS) with a private cloud platform. The public and private cloud infrastructures operate independently of each other, and integrate using software and processes that allow for the portability of data and applications
Cloud portability:
The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another. See also Vendor lock-in.
Cloud provider:
A company that provides cloud-based platform, infrastructure, application, or storage services to other organizations and/or individuals, usually for a fee.
Cloudsourcing:
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.
Cloud storage:
A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.
Consumption-based pricing model:
A pricing model whereby the service provider charges its customers based on the amount of the service the customer consumes, rather than a time-based fee. For example, a cloud storage provider might charge per gigabyte of information stored.
Subscription-based pricing model:
A pricing model that lets customers pay a fee to use the service for a particular time period, often used for SaaS services.
Elastic computing:
The ability to dynamically provision and deprovision computing and storage resources to stretch to the demands of peak usage, without the need to worry about capacity planning and engineering around uneven usage patterns.
Cloudsourcing:
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.
Abbreviations:
API: Application Programming Interface
EGO: Enterprise Grid Orchestrator
OVF: Open Virtualization Format
AMQP: Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
DBMS: Database management system
Disclaimer: Above information is collected from various sources.
OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard (like GUI front-end tool) that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
OpenStack at its core is an open source project - it's free code. But what makes OpenStack come alive are the vendors that have contributed to make that raw code and then turned it into a product businesses can use.
Some companies have used OpenStack as the basis for their public clouds; Rackspace, for example, has proven that OpenStack can power a massive, geographically distributed cloud. Others are packaging the components that make up OpenStack into an easy-to-digest product sold to enterprises for building their own private cloud.
What is PowerVC?
IBM Power Virtualization Center (PowerVC) is a new tool that lets you manage virtual machines (VM) deployed on pools of POWER servers. Support is provided for both AIX and Linux on Power VMs.
PowerVC is based on OpenStack, which is open-source cloud management software backed by significant industry support.
PowerVC is designed to simplify the management of virtual resources in IBM Power Systems environments.
PowerVC has a powerful yet simple and intuitive GUI and a deep integration with IBM Power Virtualization Management (PowerVM®) virtualization technologies. PowerVC enables virtualization without limits for the IBM Power Systems family of servers running IBM AIX®, IBM i, or IBM PowerLinuxTM.
Why OpenStack for PowerVC?
One of the big differences between PowerVC and other cloud management solutions is the use of OpenStack as a foundation.
The overall goal for PowerVC was to provide robust management for clouds built on IBM Power Systems. Managing a cloud-computing infrastructure requires a different approach than managing a traditional IT infrastructure
IBM identified several key architectural requirements for this product:
The management software had to encompass servers, storage, and networking. The management silos of the past simply did not meet the needs of a cloud environment.
The management architecture needed to be flexible, reliable, and scalable. A management architecture based on a loosely coupled service-oriented architecture with well-defined interfaces fulfills this requirement well. The general concept was a kernel of core services surrounded by plug-in modules to provide management of specific resources. The management application also needed to scale both vertically and horizontally.
The architecture had to be adaptable to allow expansion to new resource types and new management operations without requiring changes to the underlying architecture.
OpenStack fits these requirements well. OpenStack has the concept of drivers to support different resources (plug-ability), a built in foundation of middleware (service-oriented architecture) and well defined APIs tying everything together. There is an extensive open source community around OpenStack and it has a well-established governance model, and design tenets based on a loosely coupled, resilient architecture that scales horizontally.
There was another pragmatic reason for IBM to use OpenStack as the base for PowerVC: by building on OpenStack, IBM was able to get PowerVC to the market much more quickly and spent more energy working on capabilities with higher client value rather than building infrastructure “plumbing”.
It is important to note that PowerVC is a solution based on OpenStack, it is not OpenStack.
IBM built PowerVC based on the OpenStack architecture using OpenStack components, but IBM also provides enhancements and components that are not part of OpenStack, such as the management user interface and the Platform Enterprise Grid Optimizer (Platform EGO).
These extensions are designed to provide additional capability for our clients compared to the base capabilities provided by OpenStack. IBM contributes to the OpenStack community, but some of our enhancements will remain proprietary to IBM.
PowerVC is more than just OpenStack for Power. While other companies have delivered OpenStack offerings that are just big bags of technology, IBM built PowerVC on OpenStack technology to deliver a virtualization management solution for Power Systems.
As they say, “the proof is in the pudding” By building PowerVC on OpenStack, IBM has been able to deliver two releases in one year. This would have been impossible building it from scratch.
Why they’re important: IBM publicly announced that OpenStack would be a central part of the company’s cloud plans moving forward. Since then, though it’s unclear just how big of a part OpenStack plays in the company’s cloud plans.
IBM has certainly been committed to contributing toward the development of OpenStack. IBM is one of the leading contributors to the project, along with every other company on this list. IBM is using its experience in working with enterprise customers to improve areas such as quality assurance and aligning the OpenStack API to key standards. But, the company has not made OpenStack central to its own products it sells. IBM bought SoftLayer, an IaaS provider, and is in the process of expanding OpenStack support in SoftLayer’s cloud. Since that OpenStack announcement IBM has also made commitments to Cloud Foundry, another open source project for application development. And it has announced BlueMix, a PaaS offering that’s still in its early stages.
SoftLayer, an IBM Company, provides cloud Infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centers and network points of presence around the world. Our customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.
Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Our unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.
SoftLayer was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. We were acquired by IBM in July, 2013.
Bluemix, IBM Bluemix is a cloud Platform as a service (PaaS) developed by IBM. It supports several programming languages and services as well as integrated DevOps to build, run, deploy and manage applications on the cloud. Bluemix is based on Cloud Foundry open technology and runs on SoftLayer infrastructure.
It enables organizations and developers to quickly and easily create, deploy, and manage applications on the cloud.
Cloud Terminologies,
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
Cloud infrastructure services in which a virtualized environment is delivered as a service by the cloud provider. This infrastructure can include servers, network equipment, and software, including a complete desktop environment such as Windows or Linux.
Platform as a Service (PaaS):
Cloud platform services, whereby the computing platform (operating system and associated services) is delivered as a service over the internet by the provider.
Software as a Service (SaaS):
Cloud application services, whereby applications are delivered over the internet by the provider so the applications don't have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer's computers. SaaS providers were previously referred to as application service providers.
Private cloud:
Services offered over the internet or over a private internal network to select users. These services are not available to the general public.
Public cloud:
Services offered over the public internet. These services are available to anyone who wants to purchase the service.
Hybrid cloud:
The combination of a public cloud provider (such as AWS) with a private cloud platform. The public and private cloud infrastructures operate independently of each other, and integrate using software and processes that allow for the portability of data and applications
Cloud portability:
The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another. See also Vendor lock-in.
Cloud provider:
A company that provides cloud-based platform, infrastructure, application, or storage services to other organizations and/or individuals, usually for a fee.
Cloudsourcing:
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.
Cloud storage:
A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.
Consumption-based pricing model:
A pricing model whereby the service provider charges its customers based on the amount of the service the customer consumes, rather than a time-based fee. For example, a cloud storage provider might charge per gigabyte of information stored.
Subscription-based pricing model:
A pricing model that lets customers pay a fee to use the service for a particular time period, often used for SaaS services.
Elastic computing:
The ability to dynamically provision and deprovision computing and storage resources to stretch to the demands of peak usage, without the need to worry about capacity planning and engineering around uneven usage patterns.
Cloudsourcing:
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.
Abbreviations:
API: Application Programming Interface
EGO: Enterprise Grid Orchestrator
OVF: Open Virtualization Format
AMQP: Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
DBMS: Database management system
Disclaimer: Above information is collected from various sources.
