Eucalyptus Systems has long been a key provider not just of open cloud technology but also of Amazon Web Services (AWS) compatibility. Last month, Eucalyptus achieved its version 4.0 milestone with software that adds a number of new features to the mix as well as offering a glimpse at what’s to come.
Linux.com spoke recently with Shashi Mysore, director of product management at Eucalyptus, about the standout features in this latest release as well as what’s coming down the pike. Here, Mysore points out four exciting new features in the new release.
“Eucalyptus 4.0 addresses the needs of business leaders and IT administrators by reducing the complexity of deploying and managing private clouds at scale,” Mysore told Linux.com.
Specifically, the new release offers a variety of advanced new capabilities in the areas of networking, storage and security for greater control and support of large-scale clouds.
Eucalyptus Edge Networking and Scalable Object Storage, for example, are two particularly significant product enhancements that give IT and DevOps teams the ability to deploy and manage large-scale production clouds, Mysore said.
Four New Features in Eucalyptus 4.0
1. Edge Networking: “Edge Networking allows easy deployment of Eucalyptus into existing enterprise network topologies; it also reduces bottlenecks by shifting network traffic out to where applications are running, rather than through a central Linux server,” he explained.
2. Scalable Object Storage: an extensible and highly scalable service that provides S3 functionality on-premise. “This gives users the flexibility to choose from any third-party S3-compatible storage solutions, such as the included Walrus service or open source RiakCS,” Mysore pointed out. Cloud administrators can also deploy AWS-compatible user-facing services in an active/active configuration to cater to large-scale cloud demands, he said.
3. Eucalyptus Management Console has been expanded to include Cloud Account Administration. “From here, administrators can create and manage users, groups, quotas and policies,” he noted. “The new graphical policy editor makes it easy to define the rules that govern resource access in an enterprise cloud.”
4. Early support forAWS CloudFormation, a service designed to offer an easy way to create and manage a collection of related resources in the cloud. Support for AWS CloudFormation is currently available in Eucalyptus 4.0 as a Technology Preview, but it’s planned for general availability at the end of this year. “Users are eager to see CloudFormation be the next AWS-compatible service made available,” Mysore explained.
Other enhancements being considered for future inclusion are support for AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), region support and other hybrid capabilities with Eucalyptus and AWS, he added. Eucalyptus works with users to define a roadmap for future changes. The full plan is available online for review and feedback.
For more on Eucalyptus Edge Networking, see the video below. And for a more complete list of the new features in Eucalyptus 4.0, meanwhile, check out the official announcement.
