January 9, 2017 at 16:09A brief overview of hybrid clouds on OpenStack and the difficulties of building them
The massive adoption of cloud technology has fundamentally changed the process of deploying new services in the corporate IT infrastructure. With the classical approach, such a process could stretch for several days, weeks, and even months - it was first necessary to order a new server, then deliver and install it in the company's data center, manually install the operating system and application software on the server, configure the application settings, and only after that it was possible to launch a new service on it. When using cloud technologies, the deployment of the service takes several hours or minutes thanks to the self-service portal through which the system administrator or service owner can quickly get all the resources necessary for the service to work (processors, RAM and disk capacity). In this article we will talk about
There are two main options for switching to cloud computing:
Both approaches have their pros and cons. The advantage of a private cloud is its high security (applications and their data do not leave the company), more effective control over the performance and reliability of applications, the absence of dependence on an external provider, and an almost unlimited choice of virtual machine configurations. The public cloud requires significantly less initial investment in cloud technology and allows you to pay for resources allocated to applications using the pay-as-you-go model, provides transparency of IT costs, and also significantly exceeds the private cloud in terms of capacity scalability and ease of management.
For successful implementation of a cloud infrastructure in a company, it must support both classic vertically scalable high-availability server applications that can run on only one server, and horizontally scalable applications designed for the cloud that can run on multiple servers simultaneously and do not require software high availability. The failure of one instance of this type of application does not lead to the failure of the entire service that the application provides.
Since both cloud options have their pros and cons, the best option for applying to a cloud technology company is a combined approach in which some applications are deployed in a private cloud (usually these are business-critical applications and applications with increased security requirements), and all others in the public cloud of an external provider. Such a hybrid cloud usually combines both virtual and physical infrastructure, supports different service delivery models (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) and different hypervisors (KVM, XenServer, ESXi and Hyper-V).
This implies the task of ensuring interaction between applications located in a private and public cloud, mechanisms are required that implement the exchange of data and application templates between these two clouds, and, if necessary, the transfer of applications between them. Porting applications may be needed, for example, if you need to free up some of the resources of a private cloud due to a sharp increase in the load of one application. Therefore, some applications can be temporarily transferred to the public cloud. In addition, after testing in the public cloud a new version of the business critical application code, it should be moved to a private cloud. Also, mechanisms are needed that, when changing the cloud service provider, transfer all applications from the public cloud of the previous provider to its public cloud. Thus, ready-made solutions are needed,
The OpenStack project was created to develop open source software designed to create and manage private and public clouds and provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). OpenStack is developing a set of interconnected software modules for managing large pools of computing resources (Nova), storage resources (Cinder, Glance, Swift) and network resources (Neutron), as well as modules for accounting resource consumption (Ceilometer), data processing (Sahara ) and "orchestration" (Heat). OpenStack implements the management of various virtualization technologies using a single portal and open APIs.
More than 850 companies from 144 countries are participating in the OpenStack project, and new releases of OpenStack software are released every six months.
The use of "open" OpenStack software as the basis for building a private cloud provides several important advantages. First of all, it is saving on licenses, compatibility with public clouds based on OpenStack and AWS, vendor independence and the broadest support in the IT industry, the ability to adapt the cloud to your own needs thanks to open source code, scalability due to the modular software architecture, as well as fast Implementing innovation with the entire OpenStack community. OpenStack source code, many features and options for customization to individual needs entail difficulties in the design and implementation of the solution.
Building a private cloud on its basis cannot be performed as a simple plug-and-play procedure, for this, at a minimum, you need to correctly configure the cloud hardware platform, otherwise it will not be able to provide high performance applications or it will turn out that some of the servers purchased for the cloud are idle . Implementation requires appropriate expertise from the IT department team, but most companies in the state do not have specialists who are well versed in the intricacies of OpenStack technologies, moreover, even during the implementation period, it is not possible to completely utilize the working time of such an employee, and hiring him is unreasonably expensive. As a result, the introduction of a private cloud based on OpenStack on its own is associated with great risks and can stretch for several months, which is unacceptable for many companies,
Another issue is support for a private cloud based on OpenStack, including software updates and troubleshooting. As with implementation, effective support requires specialized expertise from IT professionals. To obtain expertise in this matter, the company will have to conduct training for its employees or hire qualified specialists. In both cases, this means significant additional costs that reduce the economic attractiveness of the private cloud. However, the expertise of the company's IT team does not mean that it can easily provide cloud support. The fact is that the OpenStack project is developing according to the Open Source model, so the owner of the private cloud is responsible for managing new releases of modules and installing various patches,
As a result, if building a cloud is an auxiliary task for the company’s business, it begs the decision to attract a third-party organization to design, implement and support the solution on OpenStack. Moreover, any integrator will be happy to tell you about his competencies in this area and rich experience. But think about how many implementations a particular company could actually carry out for a technology that originated only six years ago and is only being seriously considered recently. This question remains open and we, in turn, would like to talk about the experience of Fujitsu in the field of OpenStack projects.
Fujitsu Corporation is actively involved in the OpenStack community, has the status of “Gold Member” and plans to enter the top three most active community members in the next two years. Moreover, it was decided to transfer all Fujitsu systems to its own K5 cloud, built on the OpenStack platform. Currently, a multi-year project is underway to transfer more than 640 of their business systems to K5, which operate on 13 thousand servers installed in Fujitsu data centers on different continents. The implementation of this project gives Fujitsu tremendous experience in the design, implementation and support of OpenStack solutions, as well as in application migration. And the cost reduction as a result will be more than $ 300 million over 5 years.
Contribution Fujitsu to various OpenStack releases
Fujitsu, together with Red Hat, has developed the integrated PRIMEFLEX for Red Hat OpenStack system. This pre-tested for compatibility hardware and software complex minimizes the risks of infrastructure deployment and helps to avoid unpleasant surprises. And the finished reference architecture, according to our estimates, reduces costs at the design stage by up to 40%. At the same time, importantly, support is fully provided by Fujitsu. In this case, Fujitsu is a single point of contact for the support of both the software and hardware parts of the solution, which eliminates the element of shifting responsibility between different vendors. PRIMEFLEX for Red Hat OpenStack is completely built on Fujitsu's own developments and solutions of Red Hat and Brocade partners. The PRIMEFLEX for OpenStack solution is based on PRIMERGY servers,
Components of PRIMEFLEX for Red Hat OpenStack
We can talk for a long time about Fujitsu's unique solutions, but, as we discussed above, the main problem of OpenStack projects lies not in the plane of technology, but in the plane of implementation and support services.
Fujitsu's service model is based on several service centers (GDCs) located around the world. And the merit of these centers is that Fujitsu is one of the five largest companies in the world in terms of the volume of services provided. However, few know that one of these GDCs, providing services to the largest companies in the world, is located in Russia in the city of Kazan. Due to the local resource, Fujitsu provides truly high-quality consulting and development of a private cloud architecture, and can quickly implement and migrate business applications. Remote management and support services eliminate problems during the operation phase, and a well-designed 24x7 service desk will provide high-quality support to end users, allowing them to concentrate on solving their main tasks,
If you are seriously starting to consider the tasks of building a private cloud or migrating part of systems to public clouds, together with integration with traditional systems in your data center, take a closer look at all the possibilities that the OpenStack platform provides. According to our estimates, this is the right choice that Fujitsu has already made.
Cloud Approaches
There are two main options for switching to cloud computing:
- Building your own (private) cloud working in a corporate data center;
- Using the services of an external provider and transferring applications to its public cloud.
Both approaches have their pros and cons. The advantage of a private cloud is its high security (applications and their data do not leave the company), more effective control over the performance and reliability of applications, the absence of dependence on an external provider, and an almost unlimited choice of virtual machine configurations. The public cloud requires significantly less initial investment in cloud technology and allows you to pay for resources allocated to applications using the pay-as-you-go model, provides transparency of IT costs, and also significantly exceeds the private cloud in terms of capacity scalability and ease of management.
For successful implementation of a cloud infrastructure in a company, it must support both classic vertically scalable high-availability server applications that can run on only one server, and horizontally scalable applications designed for the cloud that can run on multiple servers simultaneously and do not require software high availability. The failure of one instance of this type of application does not lead to the failure of the entire service that the application provides.
Since both cloud options have their pros and cons, the best option for applying to a cloud technology company is a combined approach in which some applications are deployed in a private cloud (usually these are business-critical applications and applications with increased security requirements), and all others in the public cloud of an external provider. Such a hybrid cloud usually combines both virtual and physical infrastructure, supports different service delivery models (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) and different hypervisors (KVM, XenServer, ESXi and Hyper-V).
This implies the task of ensuring interaction between applications located in a private and public cloud, mechanisms are required that implement the exchange of data and application templates between these two clouds, and, if necessary, the transfer of applications between them. Porting applications may be needed, for example, if you need to free up some of the resources of a private cloud due to a sharp increase in the load of one application. Therefore, some applications can be temporarily transferred to the public cloud. In addition, after testing in the public cloud a new version of the business critical application code, it should be moved to a private cloud. Also, mechanisms are needed that, when changing the cloud service provider, transfer all applications from the public cloud of the previous provider to its public cloud. Thus, ready-made solutions are needed,
The OpenStack project was created to develop open source software designed to create and manage private and public clouds and provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). OpenStack is developing a set of interconnected software modules for managing large pools of computing resources (Nova), storage resources (Cinder, Glance, Swift) and network resources (Neutron), as well as modules for accounting resource consumption (Ceilometer), data processing (Sahara ) and "orchestration" (Heat). OpenStack implements the management of various virtualization technologies using a single portal and open APIs.
More than 850 companies from 144 countries are participating in the OpenStack project, and new releases of OpenStack software are released every six months.
What is the advantage of OpenStack?
The use of "open" OpenStack software as the basis for building a private cloud provides several important advantages. First of all, it is saving on licenses, compatibility with public clouds based on OpenStack and AWS, vendor independence and the broadest support in the IT industry, the ability to adapt the cloud to your own needs thanks to open source code, scalability due to the modular software architecture, as well as fast Implementing innovation with the entire OpenStack community. OpenStack source code, many features and options for customization to individual needs entail difficulties in the design and implementation of the solution.
Building a private cloud on its basis cannot be performed as a simple plug-and-play procedure, for this, at a minimum, you need to correctly configure the cloud hardware platform, otherwise it will not be able to provide high performance applications or it will turn out that some of the servers purchased for the cloud are idle . Implementation requires appropriate expertise from the IT department team, but most companies in the state do not have specialists who are well versed in the intricacies of OpenStack technologies, moreover, even during the implementation period, it is not possible to completely utilize the working time of such an employee, and hiring him is unreasonably expensive. As a result, the introduction of a private cloud based on OpenStack on its own is associated with great risks and can stretch for several months, which is unacceptable for many companies,
Another issue is support for a private cloud based on OpenStack, including software updates and troubleshooting. As with implementation, effective support requires specialized expertise from IT professionals. To obtain expertise in this matter, the company will have to conduct training for its employees or hire qualified specialists. In both cases, this means significant additional costs that reduce the economic attractiveness of the private cloud. However, the expertise of the company's IT team does not mean that it can easily provide cloud support. The fact is that the OpenStack project is developing according to the Open Source model, so the owner of the private cloud is responsible for managing new releases of modules and installing various patches,
Fujitsu Expertise in OpenStack Solutions
As a result, if building a cloud is an auxiliary task for the company’s business, it begs the decision to attract a third-party organization to design, implement and support the solution on OpenStack. Moreover, any integrator will be happy to tell you about his competencies in this area and rich experience. But think about how many implementations a particular company could actually carry out for a technology that originated only six years ago and is only being seriously considered recently. This question remains open and we, in turn, would like to talk about the experience of Fujitsu in the field of OpenStack projects.
Fujitsu Corporation is actively involved in the OpenStack community, has the status of “Gold Member” and plans to enter the top three most active community members in the next two years. Moreover, it was decided to transfer all Fujitsu systems to its own K5 cloud, built on the OpenStack platform. Currently, a multi-year project is underway to transfer more than 640 of their business systems to K5, which operate on 13 thousand servers installed in Fujitsu data centers on different continents. The implementation of this project gives Fujitsu tremendous experience in the design, implementation and support of OpenStack solutions, as well as in application migration. And the cost reduction as a result will be more than $ 300 million over 5 years.
Contribution Fujitsu to various OpenStack releases
Fujitsu, together with Red Hat, has developed the integrated PRIMEFLEX for Red Hat OpenStack system. This pre-tested for compatibility hardware and software complex minimizes the risks of infrastructure deployment and helps to avoid unpleasant surprises. And the finished reference architecture, according to our estimates, reduces costs at the design stage by up to 40%. At the same time, importantly, support is fully provided by Fujitsu. In this case, Fujitsu is a single point of contact for the support of both the software and hardware parts of the solution, which eliminates the element of shifting responsibility between different vendors. PRIMEFLEX for Red Hat OpenStack is completely built on Fujitsu's own developments and solutions of Red Hat and Brocade partners. The PRIMEFLEX for OpenStack solution is based on PRIMERGY servers,
Components of PRIMEFLEX for Red Hat OpenStack
We can talk for a long time about Fujitsu's unique solutions, but, as we discussed above, the main problem of OpenStack projects lies not in the plane of technology, but in the plane of implementation and support services.
Fujitsu's service model is based on several service centers (GDCs) located around the world. And the merit of these centers is that Fujitsu is one of the five largest companies in the world in terms of the volume of services provided. However, few know that one of these GDCs, providing services to the largest companies in the world, is located in Russia in the city of Kazan. Due to the local resource, Fujitsu provides truly high-quality consulting and development of a private cloud architecture, and can quickly implement and migrate business applications. Remote management and support services eliminate problems during the operation phase, and a well-designed 24x7 service desk will provide high-quality support to end users, allowing them to concentrate on solving their main tasks,
If you are seriously starting to consider the tasks of building a private cloud or migrating part of systems to public clouds, together with integration with traditional systems in your data center, take a closer look at all the possibilities that the OpenStack platform provides. According to our estimates, this is the right choice that Fujitsu has already made.