Eucalyptus Enhances its Cloud Platform; Sees Growing Hybrid Cloud Play

eucalyptus-dashboard

A view of cloud provider Eucalyptus' new user dashboard.

Cloud services provider Eucalyptus announced version 3.2 of its Amazon Web Services-compatible open-source cloud platform, saying this version has boosted control and management. The newest incarnation includes a new user console, simplified cloud administration, enhanced cloud usage reporting and expanded storage options.

Additionally, Eucalyptus seeing growing adoption among enterprise IT organizations. Historically, its customer roots were with Web 2.0 customers that were familiar with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem. Now the majority of interest comes from the data center sector, from companies moving on and up to Platform as a Service (PaaS) and private cloud.

“We see many are looking towards the future to hybrid cloud,” said Andy Knosp, Vice President, Product at Eucalyptus systems. So with an increasing data center play, the company is enhancing its platform to appeal to that crowd.

With version 3.2, Eucalyptus has a new web-based cloud user console, a visually friendly way to use Eucalyptus through a graphic interface. The user console enables self-service provisioning of compute, network and storage resources for cloud users. Some of the functions within include:

Storage Expansion and Enhanced Reporting

The expanded storage options include a JBOD Storage Adaptor and EMC VNX SAN storage adaptor. The JBOD adaptor provides the ability to overlay Elastic Block Store (EBS) functionality atop raw block devices and JBODs, while exposing the EBS API for Cloud Users to provision block storage. The EMC VNX SAN adaptor is expanded SAN support for EMC VNX series.

Also, this release enhances cloud usage reporting. Previously, basic level reporting was available, but the company sought to expand the reporting for greater visibility. Now administrators can access reporting on cloud compute, storage and memory usage at much more granular levels; for example, by user, group and by cloud. Reports can be generated and exported via the dashboard, API or the "hardcore" way, from the command line. There’s also an option to store usage data in an external database.

The release simplifies cloud administration as well. There is improved logging capabilities for faster troubleshooting and issue resolution. Log file formatting is now consistent across cloud components, and there are configuration options which allow a user to dynamically change how granular the log messages are. To put a point on it: administration is more flexible and less headache inducing.

In 3.2, they’ve hardened the Node Controller, enabling greater resiliency and availability of applications. This version has also been put through the wringer in terms of testing; the Engineering team has performed massive scale, open Quality Assurance testing to make sure it is production ready.

Widening Partner Base

Eucalyptus continues to enhance its platform and support, making it easier to use and compatible with a wider array of options. The company also recently launched an Authorized Education and Consulting Partner Program in support of its platform. As usual expect additional features down the line that the company isn’t disclosing just yet, as well as some more info on the massive infrastructure they use behind the Quality Assurance Testing processes.

In terms of business moves, Eucalyptus announced a strategic partnership with Ingram Micro in August. Fujitsu inked an OEM partnership with Eucalyptus back in June. Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc selected Eucalyptus to power its NuVola Private Cloud Platform.