New Intel Software Targets Making OpenStack Enterprise-Ready

Intel on Wednesday unveiled new software aimed at helping ensure that both new and legacy workloads get the right resources to run in OpenStack clouds at the performance and the level of trust expected by enterprise users.

The new Intel Datacenter Manager: Service Assurance Administrator, or Intel DCM: SAA, software provides a software-defined infrastructure to ensure that compute, networking and storage resources can be quickly deployed as services in multitenant cloud environments, said Billy Cox, general manager for service assurance management at Intel.

Intel DCM: SAA is targeted at private clouds based on the OpenStack environment, Cox said. "We're bringing enterprise capabilities into OpenStack," he told CRN.

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The new Intel DCM: SAA software stems from two very basic needs of customers in multitenant data center environments, Cox said.

The first need is trust that an application will boot in a secure fashion. Intel DCM: SAA includes Intel Trusted Execution Technology, or Intel TXT, which measures a system's hardware, BIOS and hypervisor at boot time to determine if the configuration meets security requirements, Cox said.

"For example, credit card transaction PKI [public key infrastructure] has specific requirements," he said. "If we can show the BIOS, hardware and hypervisor are the right versions, it gives customers the confidence they're supporting the right layer of trust."

The second is performance, which can be an issue when virtualized workloads are assigned to cloud and multitenant environments characterized by a variety of different types of Intel processors, as well as the issue of ’noisy neighbors," where multiple user applications may be attempting to control certain server, storage and networking resources at the expense of other applications, Cox said.

As part of Intel DCM: SAA, Intel introduced a feature called the Service Compute Unit, which specifies the target performance for a particular application, he said. Intel can use Service Compute Units to provide the right resources, or to redeploy workloads impacted by noisy neighbors to areas with less contention, he said.

Intel DCM: SAA is implemented as a Linux KVM, or kernel-based virtual machine, and has a plug-in to OpenStack.

It is available through both ISVs and through OEMs or system builders who build OpenStack distributions, Cox said.

Intel's first and, for now, only partner for Intel DCM: SAA is Redapt, a Redmond, Wash.-based provider of data center services and one of the largest resellers of Intel server processors and chips, said Jeff Dickey, Redapt's senior vice president of cloud solutions.

NEXT: Helping Make OpenStack More Enterprise-Ready

Intel DCM: SAA is a major enhancement to OpenStack, which Dickey called an "awesome" cloud solution.

"But there are a lot of gaps in OpenStack for enterprises," he said. "Enterprises want to have a cloud that can run traditional enterprise workloads in addition to cloud applications."

Intel is taking a big step to make OpenStack work for enterprises, Dickey said. "No one else is solving the assured services piece in OpenStack environments where you can create SLAs around workloads and be assured workloads work around noisy neighbors," he said.

Intel also is helping ensure workloads have trusted resources, and that if the resources change, the workloads will move to where they have the secure resources, Dickey said.

"Intel is tying the cloud to the hardware really nicely, and abstracting it through OpenStack," he said.

Intel is in a unique position to make OpenStack more enterprise-ready, Dickey said.

"If you look at OpenStack dashboards, you'll see Intel is the No. 6 to No. 9 contributor to OpenStack," he said. "That's huge. Intel is also one of the first companies to move its IT shop to OpenStack. We're also seeing so many companies come together with Intel to build OpenStack architectures, including Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu and others. I'm excited to see Intel do more with its software."

As part of Wednesday's introduction of the Intel DCM: SAA, Redapt unveiled a new OpenStack rack appliance with the technology. "It's workload-ready," Dickey said. "Just power it on, and it's a complete OpenStack environment."

PUBLISHED MAY 21, 2014