Platform Computing, a provider of cluster, grid and cloud management software, launched new software for building private and hybrid clouds. The solution, Platform ISF 3.0, includes a feature called Platform Cloud Application Designer, designed for the creation of reusable templates for deploying business applications in the cloud. The product also includes a completely redesigned user interface, automated capabilities for application and service-level management, Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) support and a self-service portal aimed at easing cloud administration for IT and line of business managers.
"Adding the Cloud Application Designer directly into Platform ISF, users can now intuitively build cloud templates for their business applications," says Rohit Valia, director of enterprise marketing for Platform Computing. "The new design console also extends Platform ISF's already strong IaaS environment by making it even easier to define application layers for delivering PaaS and SaaS capabilities within a private cloud. The solution also provides self-service to meet the needs of business users, who require services on demand."
Unique to the industry, the Platform Cloud Application Designer enables application service deployment and cloud lifecycle management across multiple application tiers and clusters. Based on intelligence Platform ISF gathers while running both applications and the underlying infrastructure, the product is able to automatically match resources to business needs and scale deployed services up or down accordingly. The Platform Cloud Application Designer also allows enterprises to easily define and build out infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). This provides capabilities for application-aware service deployment as well as managing runtime policies. In addition, Platform ISF provides a single management console from which business applications can be deployed and managed on demand through self-service.
Platform ISF 3.0 also includes Intel's TXT technology for enhanced virtualization security. With this technology, enterprises can deploy private cloud solutions that create pools of trusted VMware and KVM hypervisors. It allows users to easily detect and react to compromised hypervisors and automatically react by migrating applications to trusted hypervisors. With this capability enterprises add an additional layer of security to their cloud computing environments.
Key features of the new version include a Cloud Application Designer for enabling IaaS and PaaS deployments, as well as enhanced virtualization security with Intel TXT support.
The product is currently undergoing customer trial and a beta version is available to qualified customers. More information is available at the Platform Computing website.