Abiquo enables CIOs to regain control over Cloud environments

As enterprises increasingly look to reap the benefits of both the private and public cloud, CIOs are being forced to make a choice between enabling and securing multiple cloud environments. The two new cloud plug-ins in Abiquo 3.2 eliminates this trade-off, providing CIOs with the ability to gain control of these new and innovative environments, while giving their users consistent access to the cloud services they demand.

Key features and benefits for Abiquo 3.2 include:

Virtual machine and application monitoring capability
Abiquo 3.2 introduces virtual machine monitoring and metrics on ESX and KVM hypervisors and in AWS EC2 public cloud regions. Users can enable virtual machine monitoring, collecting and displaying a range of standard metrics, and can also push their own system and application metrics into the Abiquo monitoring system. Users benefit from visibility over the performance of their virtual machines and applications, with the graphs accessible through one single integrated portal.

Added support for Microsoft Azure
Abiquo 3.2 now supports the Microsoft Azure platform – currently deployed by 57 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. The Azure plug-in allows users to easily add and manage the environment as an Abiquo public cloud region within the Abiquo 3.2 cloud management platform. Administrators have full visibility and control of the infrastructure within the platform and can add multiple virtual data centres per account, helping to organise Azure usage across the organisation, as well as improving flexibility and scalability.

New OpenStack plug-in
As OpenStack cloud environments become more prevalent within the enterprise, a new OpenStack plug-in will help customers take advantage of this growing trend and reap the benefits of a flexible and agile infrastructure. With OpenStack still in early adopter phase, the Abiquo plug-in will provide enterprises with the ability to manage multiple OpenStack environments alongside their other private and public clouds, enabling deployment and configuration of virtual machines and networks, managing their lifecycle and creating firewalls. The mature features of the Abiquo portal and cloud platform bring a level of quality and maturity to the user and manager alike, while keeping the benefits of an open-source platform underneath.

Deliver value more rapidly through easy-to-use tutorials
Abiquo 3.2 also includes a new tutorial system, enabling the cloud administrator to create tutorials for many different user groups based on their roles within the platform. By providing a simple and seamless tutorial system, organisations can save valuable time and money and decrease the onboarding time significantly for new users. Tutorials can also be tailored in line with individual business requirements, allowing organisations to personalise the training to suit their own specific needs.

Enhanced back-up functionality
Abiquo 3.2 includes a new restore feature enabling users to request a restore of previous back-ups performed with Abiquo, which can be integrated into the back-up platform. Restored back-ups do not have to overwrite the original machine, with the new functionality allowing users to restore the back-up either as a new machine, or as a linked machine template.

Added protection for virtual machines
A new Protect VM feature enables users and processes to temporarily prevent a virtual machine from being stopped or changed, such as during a backup or while applying a series of patches. This is particularly useful when multiple users are sharing a virtual data centre or when longer operations are being performed by back-office systems.

Other updates in Abiquo 3.2 include a shared remote services feature that enables customers to make more efficient use of their cloud management servers and manage multiple public cloud regions using fewer infrastructure resources. In addition, Abiquo 3.2 also includes improved networking capabilities to help overcome netmask restrictions in previous versions. By supporting the full range of IPv4 networks with netmasks between 16 and 30 inclusive, enterprises can take advantage of larger IP ranges to better manage IP creation and virtual machine deployment.

“With hybrid cloud environments starting to take hold in the enterprise, both administrators and users need to ensure they are getting the most out of each deployment. This can be difficult in a multi-platform scenario and with IT users often being the ones to drive hybrid cloud take-up, enterprises need to be ready to take advantage of the next innovation and manage the challenges that this can bring,” comments, Ian Finlay, Vice President at Abiquo.

“Visibility and control is vital in a hybrid cloud environment and Abiquo 3.2 is designed to give enterprises the confidence to manage their entire infrastructure, both now and in the future,” Finlay continues.

“The release of Abiquo 3.2 will enable an acceleration of our Hybrid by Design cloud solutions, providing customers with greater choice and control via a fully integrated management portal. Easynet already integrates to multiple public clouds as well as our own high performing cloud platforms across Europe. This release enables us to complete the expansion of our cloud platforms across Asia, Australia and the US, thus providing a truly global solution for our Enterprise customers”, comments Philip Grannum, MD UC, Hosting & Cloud Services, Easynet.