An illustration from the OpenStack Compute documentation
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The community around the open source cloud computing platform software OpenStack (www.openstack.org) announced on Friday that it has issued its third code release, code named “Cactus,” introducing more than 40 new features, and offering greater stability for larger-scale cloud computing platform deployments.
Introduced less than a year ago, the OpenStack platform was originally comprised of code contributed by Rackspace (www.rackspace.com) and NASA, and has quickly built up a significant community, and acquired significant contributions from a range of large and small organizations and individuals.
According to the OpenStack announcement, the community now includes more than 60 organizations, and the new code release includes more than 4,700 community contributions.
In late March, Equnix, Dell and Rackspace partnered to begin building demonstration environments using the OpenStack platform. And earlier this week, Cisco submitted a proposal for network as a service functions to the OpenStack community.
Much of the development around the Cactus release, says the OpenStack announcement, had to do with building out existing features, extending the API and adding support for popular enterprise technologies, making it easier for enterprises and service providers to deploy OpenStack cloud environments with better scale and performance.
The new release applies to the OpenStack Compute and Object Storage services, as well as the more recently released OpenStack Image Service, a discovery, public registration and delivery service for virtual disk images. The improvements to Image Service include security enhancements and a new command line tool.
New OpenStack Compute features in Cactus include support for all major virtualization technologies, live migration support for KVM, enhanced network management features (including added IPv6 support), the new OpenStack API 1.1, multi-cluster region support and new support for enterprise storage solutions.
New OpenStack Opject Storage features in the release include an enhanced authentication system, data collecting functions that support service provider billing integration, and static web serving that delivers faster access to content.
Details around the Cactus release will be discussed in a webinar to be held next week, on April 19. Information and registration for the OpenStack Cactus webinar is available at the OpenStack website.
Code for the next OpenStack code release, “Diablo,” scheduled to be issued in July 2011 could include already-proposed items that will be reviewed later this month at the OpenStack Design Summit, taking place later this month.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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