GigaSpaces Cloudify Increases Integration with OpenStack

GigaSpaces Technologies is introducing additional layers of integration with OpenStack clouds in the latest version of its Cloudify, which is an open source framework for deploying, managing and scaling applications in a cloud environment.

Available for free, GigaSpaces Cloudify was designed to be an application management platform that is meant to enable the seamless migration of applications to OpenStack-based clouds. As OpenStack continues to gain traction in the customer, partner and vendor worlds, it’s critical to have platforms that integrate with the system, and migration to OpenStack clouds is of great importance.

But this is something GigaSpaces has provided in Cloudify for awhile, so what’s new? According to the company, this new release—and future releases—will be focused on “new depths” to its integration with OpenStack, particularly in three key areas. Those areas include Heat, the OpenStack infrastructure orchestration project; Cinder, the OpenStack block storage project; and the OpenStack networking project.

“In the area of cloud for enterprises, we have decided to focus our positioning on OpenStack clouds, specifically in building software middleware for simplifying the deployment, management and scaling of any application,” said Nati Shalom, CTO at GigaSpaces Technologies, in a prepared statement. “The open source and community adoption nature of OpenStack enables us to do things that are unique to OpenStack. We have begun working with major customers in the investment banking and telecom industries, as well as with partners, such as IBM, HP and Alcatel-Lucent, to add native OpenStack and multi-cloud support.”

The timing for this announcement couldn’t be better. OpenStack just celebrated its third birthday, and it’s impressive what first Rackspace (RAX) and then later the OpenStack Foundation and its many partners have been able to accomplish in such a short time.

“Enabling businesses to build and move applications to OpenStack clouds is critical, and open source solutions like Cloudify make it easier for developers to deploy and manage those applications across OpenStack environments,” said Mark Collier, COO of the OpenStack Foundation, in a prepared statement.

Also of importance is how this could impact the cloud services providers and cloud builders that are constructing OpenStack-based clouds and want things to be as easy and quick as possible.