June 3, 2013 at 09:57FlexPod: Cloupia Unified Infrastructure Controller (CUIC) - Cisco's New Acquisition
Somehow, unnoticed in the vastness of IT, the news came about Cisco's purchase of Cloupia for $ 125 million. Cisco saw the addition of its portfolio of cloud-based datacenter solutions with software from Cloupia. I also recall that Cloupia is the first orchestrator validated by both Cisco and NetApp to manage FlexPod architecture. What is FlexPod , can be found in the corresponding article on Habr. For the sake of clarity, there will be many pictures.
CUIC is an orchestrator for the data center infrastructure , able to combine under its control both physical equipment in the data center and virtualized environments. With it, you can perform orchestration from a "single point" of entry. Thus, this tool is able to provide services like: IaaS and PaaS .
Examples of such equipment:
The ability to “control from one place” is far from all that this orchestrator can do.
Cloupia allows you to combine in a template the sequence of any atomic operations, in terms of Cloupia called "workflow". Passing a workflow user, it can request the available pool of resources data center and receive them at their disposal in a few mouse clicks in minutes. In the basic configuration, a large number of already prepared standard workflows are supplied.
You can manage not only virtual environments, but also bare hardware, such as switches, storage , servers, etc.
Another useful feature should also include monitoring of consumed resources. Here you can get detailed reports on various kinds of objects, such as: users using the resources of a cloud provider (in the broad sense of the word), groups of these users, entire organizations (including user groups), consumed storage space , CPU and memory utilization, network counting traffic and more.
The graph display can be flexibly configured and available in sections according to: network part, computing resources, data storage system, virtualized environments, financial costs (up to electricity consumption), etc.
Well, as it became clear from the previous paragraph - in Cloupia CUICthere is a self-service portal that allows you to get statistics on the resources consumed by the user with a display of all kinds of cuts.
There, on the self-service portal, the load generated by all entities is displayed: both physical and virtual.
In one of the portal tabs, a list of possible workflows “to order” is available.
The application execution process can be seen both by the user who ordered the service, and from the admin panel, orchestrator administrator.
Since CUIC is the very first validated orchestra for FlexPod, it provides convenient tools for managing this architecture. So during commissioning it is very convenient to use the “flexplay” of the FlexPod infrastructure, which contains all the architecture components, for which it remains only to add management IP address, login and password. In the future, the general status of the entire FlexPod can be observed from one place - on the dedicated admin interface tab. Choosing an architecture component you will go into a detailed view of its state, from where it is also possible to configure it.
Cisco expects software from Cloupia to better manage and automate the network, computing platform, storage systems, virtual environments and operating system resources as a single infrastructure. Cisco UCSis a converged infrastructure and the company has made a big bet on the provision of converged infrastructures, which combines computing resources, a storage system and a network in one box. IT wants to get rid of the dependencies that "lock" them on one manufacturer of solutions for data centers. “One-stop solutions” locks the buyer on one vendor, which leads to additional costs. Manufacturers of Cisco, NetApp, EMC and IBM have seen in the trends of transition to a “converged infrastructure” a way to sell and promote their products on the enterprise market. Like other large companies, Cisco partners with other partner companies such as NetApp and VMWare sell joint (in differences from “solutions from one source”) solutions through their sales channels. Cisco writes in a blog post about the purchase:
Cisco already has a cloud-based management tool in its portfolio - CIAC . And as can be seen from the quotation above, both of these products CUIC and CIAC will be integrated into one reshenie.Poka that we can only imagine the result of the merger, with the help of integration schemes below:
Notes on errors in the text and suggestions please send to HP .
This text was transferred to the NetApp blog from another habratopik by its owner.
Cuic
CUIC is an orchestrator for the data center infrastructure , able to combine under its control both physical equipment in the data center and virtualized environments. With it, you can perform orchestration from a "single point" of entry. Thus, this tool is able to provide services like: IaaS and PaaS .
Examples of such equipment:
- Network routers and switches: Cisco Nexus 7000, 5000, 1000v.
- Computing Systems: Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect.
- Various storage systems, including NetApp.
- Virtualization: VMware, Microsoft, Citrix.
opportunities CUIC
The ability to “control from one place” is far from all that this orchestrator can do.
Cloupia allows you to combine in a template the sequence of any atomic operations, in terms of Cloupia called "workflow". Passing a workflow user, it can request the available pool of resources data center and receive them at their disposal in a few mouse clicks in minutes. In the basic configuration, a large number of already prepared standard workflows are supplied.
You can manage not only virtual environments, but also bare hardware, such as switches, storage , servers, etc.
Another useful feature should also include monitoring of consumed resources. Here you can get detailed reports on various kinds of objects, such as: users using the resources of a cloud provider (in the broad sense of the word), groups of these users, entire organizations (including user groups), consumed storage space , CPU and memory utilization, network counting traffic and more.
The graph display can be flexibly configured and available in sections according to: network part, computing resources, data storage system, virtualized environments, financial costs (up to electricity consumption), etc.
Well, as it became clear from the previous paragraph - in Cloupia CUICthere is a self-service portal that allows you to get statistics on the resources consumed by the user with a display of all kinds of cuts.
There, on the self-service portal, the load generated by all entities is displayed: both physical and virtual.
In one of the portal tabs, a list of possible workflows “to order” is available.
The application execution process can be seen both by the user who ordered the service, and from the admin panel, orchestrator administrator.
Flexpod
Since CUIC is the very first validated orchestra for FlexPod, it provides convenient tools for managing this architecture. So during commissioning it is very convenient to use the “flexplay” of the FlexPod infrastructure, which contains all the architecture components, for which it remains only to add management IP address, login and password. In the future, the general status of the entire FlexPod can be observed from one place - on the dedicated admin interface tab. Choosing an architecture component you will go into a detailed view of its state, from where it is also possible to configure it.
CloudGenie for FlexPod
CloudGenie for FlexPod is an application for Android and iPad that allows you to visually and intuitively manage the basic parameters of the entire infrastructure from one place. Below are videos demonstrating the capabilities of the application for 2011.Cloupia Expectations from Cisco
Cisco expects software from Cloupia to better manage and automate the network, computing platform, storage systems, virtual environments and operating system resources as a single infrastructure. Cisco UCSis a converged infrastructure and the company has made a big bet on the provision of converged infrastructures, which combines computing resources, a storage system and a network in one box. IT wants to get rid of the dependencies that "lock" them on one manufacturer of solutions for data centers. “One-stop solutions” locks the buyer on one vendor, which leads to additional costs. Manufacturers of Cisco, NetApp, EMC and IBM have seen in the trends of transition to a “converged infrastructure” a way to sell and promote their products on the enterprise market. Like other large companies, Cisco partners with other partner companies such as NetApp and VMWare sell joint (in differences from “solutions from one source”) solutions through their sales channels. Cisco writes in a blog post about the purchase:
Cloupia’s acquisition of Cisco adds value to its Cisco data center strategy by providing a single management console for Cisco equipment and solutions from its partners, including FlexPod, VSPEX, and Vblock. Cloupia's products will be integrated into the Cisco data center portfolio through the UCS manager, UCS Central and Nexus 1000v, strengthening the overall strategy of Cisco ecosystems and providing open APIs for integration with a wide community of developers and partners.
CIAC & CUIC
Cisco already has a cloud-based management tool in its portfolio - CIAC . And as can be seen from the quotation above, both of these products CUIC and CIAC will be integrated into one reshenie.Poka that we can only imagine the result of the merger, with the help of integration schemes below:
Notes on errors in the text and suggestions please send to HP .
This text was transferred to the NetApp blog from another habratopik by its owner.
