Red Hat Adds OpenStack Management Tools, Extends Cloud Certs

Red Hat Software released an upgraded version of its CloudForms tools used to deploy and manage private and hybrid Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds with support for OpenStack. The new CloudForms 3.0 debuted at the OpenStack Foundation Summit, taking place in Hong Kong this week.

Also at the large industry event, Red Hat said its OpenShift Platform as a Service (PaaS) software can now be deployed on OpenStack clouds. The move lets developers and IT pros use OpenStack infrastructure to create PaaS environments. 

"OpenStack is one of the foundational pillars on which we are building out our open hybrid cloud strategy and portfolio," said Bryan Che, Red Hat's general manager of cloud, speaking on a Web cast from Hong Kong. Since committing to OpenStack two years ago, Che said Red Hat has become the largest contributor to the open source project, including the most recent Havana release. The company said it has 87 engineers working on 69 various OpenStack projects.

Red Hat was able to integrate the OpenStack management functionality into CloudForms after it acquired ManageIQ in the beginning of the year for $104 million. CloudForms 3.0 also gained improved management of Amazon public and hybrid cloud services and VMware infrastructure from ManageIQ. "Enterprises are now going to be able to deploy OpenStack, and they'll be able to bring enterprise-class management capability on top of it, as well," Che said.

The new release also includes tools for authoring and administrating service catalogs. The company offers it as a virtual appliance. Red Hat offers it as a standalone management platform, as well as part of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Platform, which includes the Linux distribution bundled with OpenStack.

In addition to the new wares, Red Hat has extended its OpenStack certification programs. The company's partner network, launched in June, now has 140 members that have introduced over 900 certified solutions available in the Red Hat Marketplace. "As a result of the partners who are engaged with us in this program, we're seeing hundreds of customers with POCs," said Mike Werner, Red Hat's senior director for global ecosystems.

While the current certifications focused on core compute, storage and networking, Red Hat said it is adding OpenStack SWIFT object storage and extensions to advanced networking features in the community called Neutron.

On top of certification for OEMs, independent system builders and ISVs, Red Hat is extending the certification program to systems integrators, managed service and cloud service providers, and its channel partners.

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 11/07/2013 at 11:11 AM