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​VMware ready to release new OpenStack cloud program

VMware's heart is proprietary, but to to deliver its functionality to customers, it uses open-source OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud.
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor

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At OpenStack Summit in Vancouver, Canada, VMware released its newest Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud, VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO) 5. This is based on the new OpenStack Queens release.

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VIO will be available in both Carrier and Data Center Editions. VMware is using OpenStack to present users with an open, vendor-neutral application programming interface (API) access to VMware's proprietary virtualized infrastructure. VMware plans for this to help companies accelerate its network functions virtualization (NFV) workload deployment.

VMware promises VIO will provide customers with the fastest, most efficient solution to deploy and operate OpenStack clouds optimized for VMware's NFV and software-defined data center (SDDC) infrastructure, with advanced automation and onboarding. If you're already using VIO, you can take use OpenStack's built-in upgrade capability to upgrade seamlessly to VIO 5.

This OpenStack release will also comply with the OpenStack Foundation's 2018.02 interoperability guidelines. That means VMware will package, test, and support all of major VIO's components over a multi-cloud architecture.

VMware is targeting the telecom industry with this release. Gabriele Di Piazza, VMware Telco NFV Business Unit's VP of products and solutions, said in a statement, "VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will enable customers to achieve the massive scale required to power Telco and private clouds globally, and address NFV and edge computing use cases as telecom networks evolve towards 5G."

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Specifically, VIO-Carrier Edition will addresses specific requirements of communication service providers (CSP) deploying NFV-based network services spanning a host of current and 5G-ready use cases across core and edge. These improvements include:

  • Accelerated Data Plane Performance: Will enable customers to achieve significant improvements in application response time, reduce network latencies, and breakthrough network performance via support of NSX Managed Virtual Distributed Switch in Enhanced Data Path mode and DPDK, as well as optimize data plane techniques in VMware vSphere.
  • Elastic Multi-Tenant Resource Scaling: Will provide resource guarantee and resource isolation to each tenant. It will also support elastic resource scaling allowing CSPs to add new resources dynamically across different vSphere clusters to adapt to traffic conditions or transition from pilot phase to production in place. This will enable CSPs to isolate one type of workload/VNF from another, as well as maintain resource availability as the load increases.
  • OpenStack "In a Box" for 5G and Edge Computing: Small footprint and highly resilient micro data center form factor will enable deployment "in a box" for 5G and edge computing. Customers will have full control over these micro data centers and apps at the edge via automated API-driven orchestration and lifecycle management. The solution will help tackle enterprise use cases such as utilities, oil and gas drilling platforms, point-of-sale applications, security cameras, and manufacturing plants and Telco oriented use-cases such Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), latency sensitivity VNF deployments, and operational support systems (OSS).
  • Self-Driving Operations and Service Assurance: Will provides 360-degree visibility with real-time insights, root cause analysis (RCA), and remediation for OpenStack-based environments, including advanced workload analytics, predictive resource scheduling and balancing, and high-scale monitoring for VMs and containers across a single virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM).

VIO 5 is meant to also meant to enable CSP and enterprise customers to make the most of Queens advancements to support mission-critical workloads, across container and cloud-native application environments. These new capabilities will include:

  • Massive Scale: Run up 500 hosts and 15,000 VMs in a single region, and will introduce support for multiple regions at once with monitoring and metrics at scale.
  • High Availability for Mission-Critical Workloads: Create snapshots, clones, and backups of attached volumes to dramatically improve VM and application uptime via enhancements to the Cinder volume driver.
  • Unified Virtualized Environment: Ability to deploy and run both VM and container workloads on a single virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) and with a single network fabric based on VMware NSX-T Data Center. This architecture will enable customers to seamlessly deploy hybrid workloads where some components run in containers while others run in VMs.
  • Advanced Security: Consolidate and simplify user and role management based on enhancements to Keystone, including the use of application credentials as well as system role assignment. VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will take security to new levels with encryption of internal API traffic, Keystone to Keystone federation, and support for major identity management providers including VMware Identity Manager.
  • Optimization and Standardization of DNS Services: Scalable, on-demand DNS as a service via Designate. Customers can auto-register any VM or Virtual Network Function (VNF) to a corporate approved DNS server instead of manually registering newly provisioned hosts through Designate.
  • Improved User Interface: Simplifies multi-tier and L3 routed network implementations via the latest Horizon dashboard. Ability to enable/disable NAT on the OpenStack NSX tenant router and association to Neutron availability zones directly from the Horizon user interface, and it allows developers to tailor the network to fit their apps.

So, if you're using VMware and want to move into a private cloud, or if you're a telecom and looking for a way to handle your upcoming 5G NFV workload, VIO deserves your attention.

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