Oracle Delivers Solaris 11.2 with OpenStack, Integrated SDN Features

 Just before summer began, Oracle unveiled the beta version of Solaris 11.2, which is only the second point release of Solaris since version 11 of the platform appeared in 2011. The really notable thing about the beta was that Oracle began positioning Solaris as "a modern cloud platform that melds efficient virtualization, application-driven software-defined networking (SDN) technology and a full OpenStack distribution."

Now, the official version 11.2 is released and Oracle is continuing to frame it as essentially a datacenter in a box.

The general release of Oracle Solaris 11.2 runs OpenStack Havana version and supports software-defined networking (SDN), a branch of Oracle’s work to turn its Exalogic Elastic Cloud into simple-to-deploy datacenters. It adds up to an interesting integrated solution that some IT departments already committed to Oracle will consider.

"Oracle's relentless innovation offers customers the strongest cloud product portfolio in the industry. By engineering the OS, the virtualization, SDN and OpenStack together, Oracle Solaris 11.2 provides a complete cloud solution," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems, Oracle, in a statement. "It's a complete platform for simple, efficient, secure, compliant and open enterprise cloud deployments that can help customers accelerate their businesses and capitalize on the potential of cloud computing while reducing cost."

"Cloud computing is creating an entirely new set of expectations for enterprise-class infrastructure software," said Al Gillen, Program VP, Servers and System Software, IDC, in a statement. "Where once offering the piece parts -- the OS, virtualization and networking -- was a sufficient starting point, having an integrated solution is becoming more of the expectation for enterprise customers looking to build a private cloud."

As Oracle pitches its integrated solution and OpenStack platform to enterprises, it will emphasize its experience in supporting enterprise customers. That's the same support-centric strategy that Red Hat has. Oracle may also pitch the SDN capabilities in Solaris at telcos, which Red Hat is also focused on. As Silicon Angle notes:

"Although intended as cloud-hosting systems, Exalogic boxes tend to be used more as massive servers or for transaction processing. But with the introduction of SDN capabilities, Oracle is hoping to change that. Now, telcos and other enterprises can run mission-critical clouds using Solaris, or else they can use bits of OpenStack, which means they can do away with hardware from the likes of Cisco Systems, Inc., and Juniper Networks, Inc. That’s what Oracle’s pitching anyway."

In addition to OpenStack support, Oracle has announced future support for OpenDaylight SDN in Solaris 11.2. OpenDaylight is an open-source platform for SDN led by the Linux Foundation.