New Virtualization Integrations for ACTIVATE Eases Cloud Resource Management

Parallel Works, provider of the ACTIVATE control plane for AI and HPC resources, is debuting a new OpenStack integration for its ACTIVATE platform—the accessible solution for optimizing compute performance and reducing cloud-related costs. The new OpenStack capabilities for ACTIVATE further unlock new levels of efficiency, cost savings, and resource optimization for the cloud, centered around simplicity. 

ACTIVATE is the ultimate HPC and AI control plane for accessing, managing, and configuring computing resources, according to Parallel Works. It is purpose-built for AI and compute-intensive workloads, offering advanced cost control across on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments. With this latest integration, ACTIVATE simplifies OpenStack implementation while improving AI and HPC resource utilization, boosting performance and reducing administrative overhead. 

This is particularly relevant as more and more companies look to open source virtualization technology as a means to mitigate licensing costs. By repatriating cloud workloads to on-premises data centers, enterprises aim to reap the benefits of flexibility, scalability, security, and vendor-agnostic integration with virtualization technologies. ACTIVATE’s integration with OpenStack is key in this endeavor, according to Matthew Shaxted, founder and CEO of Parallel Works.

“As public cloud costs surge, organizations are increasingly reevaluating their cloud strategies,” said Shaxted. "To manage rising expenses, many are integrating on-premises private clouds and Kubernetes clusters alongside their public cloud environments, reducing total cost of ownership. OpenStack support is a critical component of this private cloud repatriation strategy, allowing businesses to migrate their virtualized workloads on-premises while they explore full containerization with Kubernetes. By combining these cluster managers with our ACTIVATE control plane, we create a seamless experience across public and private clouds.”

Some of the ACTIVATE OpenStack features include:

• Advanced workload orchestration with custom workflows through GitHub-action-like YAML syntax, enabling seamless integration with workflow fabrics while dynamically adjusting GPU resources to meet diverse computational needs

• Dynamic cost control and usage tracking for more precise financial oversight paired with near-real-time analytics and automated alerts for budget controls 

• Turnkey cluster provisioning, enabling rapid deployment of high-performance clusters for multiple workloads directly on OpenStack resources, accompanied by one-click deployments of pre-configured clusters and flexible resource sharing for enhanced collaboration

• Enhanced end-user experience through a unified access portal underpinned by a single, intuitive interface 

• Seamless storage management with full support for diverse storage types—including NetApp ONTAP volumes—ensuring data persistence and high performance