One of the issues faced by organisations looking to move to cloud computing is that many of the offerings from providers are based on proprietary software, which flies in the face of the move towards greater openness.
But a new offering from Dell is set to compete with these proprietary products by incorporating the OpenStack cloud operating system into a complete turnkey system, our sister site Cloud Pro reported.
The OpenStack Cloud Solution integrates OpenStack with PowerEdge C server and Dell's own "Crowbar" OpenStack installer, Dell claimed that the new offering will enable customers to move quickly into installing a cloud-based system. The OpenStack Cloud Solution also uses Rackspace Cloud Builders for provisioning of cloud services.
According to Dell, the key aim of the solution is to make things as easy as possible for its customers, many of whom will be new to installing cloud.
The Crowbar software manages OpenStack deployment from the initial server boot to the configuration of the primary components Dell said that the software would greatly speed up configuring time, allowing users deploy multi-node OpenStack clouds in hours, not days. In keeping with its open source roots. Dell has released Crowbar code to the open source community and is looking to submit Crowbar as a core project in the OpenStack initiative.
The move is an endorsement of Dell's efforts in the OpenStack community but also builds on its experience in providing servers to data centres, said Mark Linebaugh, vice president of Next Generation Computing Solutions at Dell.
"Utilisng and integrating the efficiencies of the PowerEdge C line with optimised software, and tailored services, the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution enables users to go from unboxing servers to running a usable OpenStack cloud in mere hours.The ability to quickly develop, deploy, and deliver open source cloud services can translate not only to lower costs, but also the flexibility to rapidly add new features and meet customer needs on demand," he said.
