SoftIron Donates HyperDrive Storage Solution to Sausage Cloud Open Source Community Project

SoftIron Ltd. announced their support for open source communities with a donation of its HyperDrive storage solution to the non-profit Sausage Cloud, an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud project that provides a cost-effective and accessible resource for learning, R&D for those interested in developing open source cloud infrastructure software, such as OpenStack and Kubernetes.

Hyperdrive storage appliance

Sausage Cloud is an OpenStack-based cloud computing platform in a former WWII nuclear bunker located in a remote part of Scotland, UK, where engineers can test their developer mettle on sausage-themed VMs with names like bratwurst, cumberland, and chipolata.

“Open source is quite literally at the heart of everything we do at SoftIron,” said Phil Straw, CEO, which builds scale-out data center hardware optimized around open source software-defined cores (such as Ceph for storage, and SONiC for networking). “We find it very worthwhile to support a project like Sausage Cloud, which lines up with our own vision to create data infrastructure that delivers high-performing, software-defined data center operations that are efficient, flexible, scalable and secure, yet free of complexity and unnecessary expense. We’re glad to help Sausage Cloud, whose purpose aligns with our own ethos, and who provide a challenging environment for our SoftIron HyperDrive storage solution to shine.“

The Sausage Cloud installation, located in an old war bunker and running on a shoe-string budget, provides core cloud infrastructure components that could be traditionally found in an on-premise data center, including servers, storage, and networking hardware, as well as a ‘vanilla’ OpenStack deployment. The unique location of the installation presents the team with an array of challenges, including a small and remote space with limited power. With finite funds with which to run the operation, the group was in need of a stand-out storage solution that could help them deliver their service to a competitively high standard and meet the expectations of their users.

“Managing cloud infrastructure that meets the high expectations of demanding engineers can be daunting for any system administrator,” said Matt Illingworth, engineer, Sausage Cloud project. “We are delighted to receive the donation of the SoftIron HyperDrive storage appliances, which are engineered around open-source Ceph to deliver high performance with superior efficiency – reducing the costs to operate, while maximizing the utility of the software. We are thankful to have a storage solution that so admirably fits what we are trying to accomplish in both physics and philosophy.“

Recently, the company’s HyperDrive storage appliance was selected by Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. (EMA), an IT and data management research and consulting firm, to receive a Top 3 Award in their EMA Top 3 Enterprise Decision Guide 2020 report. HyperDrive was selected as a storage solution in the Hybrid Cloud Management – Enterprise Data Services category for the awards.

Ressource:
Sausage Cloud deployment case study

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