Dell Rolls Out Open-Source OpenStack Cloud Solution

Dell is releasing a cloud-computing solution that leverages the open-source OpenStack cloud software platform and its own PowerEdge servers.

Dell’s new IaaS (infrastructure as a service) offering — called the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution and announced July 26 — is part of the vendor s effort to push the adoption of open-source technology for cloud offerings. Along with the use of OpenStack, the Dell solution includes its “Crowbar” OpenStack installer, which manages the deployment of OpenStack from when the server initially boots all the way through configuration.

As part of the open-source IaaS strategy, Dell officials also announced that they are releasing Crowbar to the open-source community, with hopes of making it a project within the OpenStack initiative.

The OpenStack platform enables customers to adopt a cloud environment that is open rather than proprietary licensed software, Dell officials said. The Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution also includes Dell s cloud-optimized PowerEdge C servers and services from Dell and Rackspace Cloud Builders. The rollout comes four months after Dell, Rackspace and Opscode demonstrated what officials said was the first fully automated provisioning of a multi-node OpenStack cloud.

The companies gave the demonstration during the Cloud Connect conference in March.

Rackspace and NASA launched the OpenStack project in July 2010, and it now has 92 companies and almost 2,000 people as members, according to its Website. The goal is to create an open and standard cloud operating environment.

Dell’s OpenStack Cloud Solution — which uses the current OpenStack released, dubbed “Cactus” — is designed to give businesses a fast and cost-effective way to get their IaaS infrastructure up and running, according to Mark Linebaugh, vice president of Dell s Next Generation Computing Solutions group.

To read the original eWeek article, click here: Dell Unveils Open-Source OpenStack Cloud Platform