Dell EMC: Open Source Storage Updates Designed for Security and Easier Consumption

Dell Technologies, Inc. announced the latest updates in a series of open source contributions from {code} by Dell EMC, including trust and security enhancements to REX-Ray in 0.9, this version of the container storage orchestration engine.

Additionally, REX-Ray is shipping Docker certified managed volume plug-ins for cloud and storage platforms available in the Docker Store. The Docker Certification Program, a framework for partners to integrate and certify their software for the Docker Enterprise Edition (EE) commercial platform. Other announcements include collaboration on a universal ‘Container Storage Interface’ and unification of Polly‘s features and roadmap into REX-Ray.

Container technology has made strides since last year’s DockerCon, but there are still barriers to organizations consuming them in an enterprise environment-and that means it’s time to put industry-standard architectures and security measures in place for this technology. Mitigating the risks of adopting containers for critical cloud native persistent workloads has proved to be a challenge, and REX-Ray 0.9 addresses this challenge through its controller model that ships with security enabled by default. REX-Ray is able to run from anywhere while protecting sensitive credentials, encrypting communication, and performing per-client authentication.

The Docker Store is the enterprise user’s go-to destination for trusted, enterprise-ready Docker containers, plug-ins and editions. Support for storage platforms that work with Docker is made available through Docker Certified managed volume plug-ins. These plug-ins enhance the user experience in ensuring integration to orchestrate persistent applications with external storage. The Docker Certified REX-Ray plug-ins include Amazon EBS/EFS, Dell EMC ScaleIO/Isilon, Google Compute Engine PD, and any S3-compatible storage.

“Demand for storage with containers is being driven by organizations looking to use containers for all applications. Docker Enterprise Edition platform and its pluggable architecture is the enabler of a new opportunity for storage in the enterprise. REX-Ray through its features and security is a great vehicle to ensure interoperability for many storage platforms,” said Marianna Tessel, EVP, strategic development, Docker.

Polly, named for ‘polymorphic volume scheduling,’ is an open source volume scheduling service centrally working with container schedulers to provide volume resources when requested. The introduction of Polly’s scheduling services inside of REX-Ray’s centralized controller will enable users to deploy a single storage service that provides governance and security for critical storage services. Additionally, through its experience in building libStorage with Polly, the {code} team is collaborating with industry leaders on a Container Storage Interface initiative through the Cloud Native Computing Foundation to ensure container orchestrators, storage controllers, and agents have a universal way of interoperating in the future.

“Containers have come a long way towards becoming enterprise ready with the addition of enterprise-grade features such as security and more common interfaces. Our work with the CNCF ensures that, once the Container Storage Interface is ready, REX-Ray will bring support quickly to existing storage drivers and we can start building long lasting value on top of this work. Collaborative projects only benefit the enterprise if users can actually consume it, and that’s the thinking behind our direction and updates through libStorage and REX-Ray 0.9,” said Josh Bernstein, VP, technology, Dell.

In addition to the project updates, {code} by the company recently discussed community momentum, including the state of the {code} Catalyst program. Read more.