Microsoft Corp. is partnering with Cloud.com to provide integration and support of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V to the OpenStack project, an open source cloud computing platform. The addition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V will provide organizations and service providers running a mix of Microsoft and non-Microsoft infrastructure with greater flexibility when using OpenStack.
As part of the collaboration, Microsoft will provide architectural and technical guidance to Cloud.com. Cloud.com in turn will develop the code to support OpenStack on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. Once complete, the project code will be checked into the public code repository here.
OpenStack uses open source software on standard hardware. The software can run on an individual server in an existing data center or run on hardware configured as a modular data center. It uses virtualization technology to create and manage large groups of virtual machines.
"One of the biggest concerns people have today with regard to going to the cloud is: Is my data, content and application going to be locked in - and the reason for that is that there are certain cloud vendors out there that have one big monolithic system and they are unwilling to open up and drive that interoperable requirement for customers," Peder Ulander, chief marketing officer at Cloud.com, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
OpenStack when it was launched a few months back aimed to build an open, interoperable architecture that would enable people to build and deploy clouds while protecting and keeping consistent their ability to have choice and flexibility with regard to how they run their applications, data and content, says Ulander. Up until now, the OpenStack project was predominantly on KVM, Xen and a few other smaller hypervisors, he explains, observing that the addition of Microsoft to the OpenStack project is "monumental."
The partnership with Microsoft is so important, says Ulander, because it provides an avenue for Microsoft customers who are used to their enterprise tools to now have access to the OpenStack project as well as Cloud.com's CloudStack technologies to build and manage their own private clouds. And on the flip side, he adds, for OpenStack customers and for Cloud.com customers, it provides them with "yet another choice of an extremely robust, enterprise-class hypervisor toolkit," resulting in "an all-around better environment for customers."
For information about Cloud.com, go here.
For information about the OpenStack project, go here.