Rackspace has updated its Private Cloud Software offering to include three new features – OpenCenter, High Availability and Host Operating System Choice.
The software, which is powered by OpenStack, was launched in August 2012. Since then, the organisation claims around 18 per cent of Fortune 100 companies have downloaded it and there have been over 6,000 downloads in 156 countries.
The products can be deployed on Rackspace’s own infrastructure or within the client’s own data centre, with SLAs tailored accordingly.
According to the company, the three additional features in the new release of OpenStack, will make running a private cloud simpler and more efficient for customers.
Simon Abrams, head of market strategy and insight at Rackspace, told Cloud Pro that OpenCenter is the most important of the three updates.
“OpenCenter is really a user-friendly operator’s graphical user interface [that], alongside API access, really gives an organisation the ability to operate, deploy and manage their cloud in a much more intuitive way. They do not have to deep dive into the bits and bytes from a command line interface, although that is still an option as well.
“It is the beginnings, I would say, of an enterprise interface for organisations that want to operate their own Open Stack,” he added.
Abrams also stated that OpenCentre allows greater ability to customise the way Private Cloud Software is installed, whereas previously there had been a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
The High Availability feature adds additional resilience to the Private Cloud Software, delivering it as a cluster as opposed to a single instance, while Host Operating System Choice allows customers to choose from Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux or CentOS as the host operating system for their deployments.
Jim Curry, senior vice president and general manager of Rackspace Private Cloud, said: “[The Updates] pave the way for Rackspace to bring its continuous integration and deployment expertise from the public cloud arena into private enterprise datacentres.
“We are taking our own solid technology practices forward into private open cloud, backed by Fanatical Support.”
