Red Hat Collaborates With NetApp

Red Hat, Inc., announced collaboration with NetApp, Inc. to deliver an open hybrid cloud reference architecture based on OpenStack IceHouse, the newest version of the open source cloud software platform.

Based on open technologies, the architecture will help organizations build agile, interoperable private and hybrid clouds that are easily anaged, scalable, and reliable. This reference architecture will be designed to enable customers to more closely integrate Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform with NetApp storage and data management technology.

For more than a decade, Red Hat and NetApp have collaborated to support industry standards that give enterprises greater choice when deploying new IT environments. The combination of Red Hat open source software with NetApp storage and data management provides an open, interoperable, standards-based foundation for new hybrid IT delivery models requiring a mix of resources across physical, virtual, public, and private cloud infrastructures. The solution for open hybrid cloud with OpenStack features enterprise security, performance, availability, and data management to reduce implementation risk, and lower TCO.

The collaboration between the two companies extends to a support relationship as Red Hat and NetApp work to provide collaborative support to customers. Using combined best practices, the joint support teams have adopted a process to engage the right engineers to troubleshoot customer issues to resolution. Combining best practices, adopting a collaborative process, and participating in training exchanges and service reviews are the first steps in our on-going commitment to providing a support experience for customers.

NetApp and Red Hat continue to contribute to OpenStack by tightly integrating their products and services with OpenStack. Both companies announced their intent to drive file services standards through Manila, a new OpenStack project under consideration. Having diverse applications critical to enterprise business, from server virtualization to relational or distributed databases depends on the tight integration of those services with file-based systems, such as NetApp products and services. Manila aims to drive enterprise adoption of OpenStack by creating tighter integration with the file-based storage market.

Additionally, Red Hat and NetApp have integrated key technologies with the OpenStack Icehouse release. Red Hat was one of the corporate contributors to OpenStack Icehouse, and is involved in many core and emerging OpenStack projects. These contributions, along with the pre-compiled installer to ease deployment, and integration with Red Hat Enterprise Linux provide the security, reliability, and performance needed to support mission critical workloads. Icehouse focuses on maturity and stability as illustrated by its attention to rolling upgrades amidst ongoing production deployment. NetApp’s direct contributions to OpenStack provide integrated access to storage efficiency, data protection, continuous availability, scalability, and QoSs features designed to accelerate and simplify delivery of differentiated cloud services.

As part of Icehouse development, NetApp was engaged with OpenStack to help bring enhanced block storage to enable tighter integration with its storage and data management solutions, expanding support and integration from the clustered Data ONTAP OS and FAS to SANtricity software and the E-Series. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform provides the foundation to build a private or public infrastructure-as-a-service cloud that is more tightly integrated with NetApp’s products and services. It offers a calable, fault-tolerant platform for the development of cloud-enabled workloads.

Radhesh Balakrishnan, GM, virtualization and OpenStack, Red Hat, said: “Many organizations don’t have the resources to build an OpenStack solution from scratch and deploy it into production. Red Hat and NetApp are teaming to simplify this integration and implementation process and deliver highly collaborative support for production workloads. The combination of Red Hat’s OpenStack and NetApp’s storage and data management offerings enable customers to implement an enterprise OpenStack. We are excited about teaming with NetApp to take the guesswork out of integration and implementation and thereby fuel the enterprise adoption of OpenStack.“

Phil Brotherton, VP, cloud solutions group, NetApp, said: “NetApp and Red Hat are helping enterprises deliver the cloud on their terms with open, interoperable architectures built on accepted industry standards. Together, we’re contributing to the success of OpenStack with a reference architecture designed to speed the deployment of scalable, reliable and easily managed hybrid cloud solutions.“