Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 is Coming Soon

Red Hat reported yet another quarter of solid earnings yesterday, and it is also announcing the impending arrival of Red Hat Ceph Storage 2, the next generation of its popular open software-defined storage platform. Back in 2014, Red Hat acquired Ceph, giving it a pathway to innovate in the world of software-defined, distributed storage systems. Ceph integrates block, object and file system-based storage devices into a single storage cluster, which has become a huge requirement in the cloud. In particular, it has emerged as the most popular option for distributed block storage among OpenStack users.

The advisory board overseeing Ceph includes Canonical, CERN, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Intel, Red Hat, SanDisk and SUSE. Red Hat Ceph Storage 2, based on the Ceph Jewel release, introduces several new capabilities that enhance support for object storage workloads and promote greater ease of use.

According to Red Hat:

"Ceph was designed from the ground up to enable and support enterprises' digital transformation efforts through web scale object and cloud infrastructures. As an object storage solution, it is well-suited for enterprises with deployments approaching a petabyte of data or more. Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 brings enhanced capabilities for enterprise object storage customers who are demanding scale, increased security, and strong compatibility with industry-standard APIs."

New object storage features in Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 include:

New global object storage clusters, which provide a single namespace and data synchronization between clusters operating in multiple regions.

Improved security via integration with authentication systems, including Active Directory, LDAP, and OpenStack Identity (Keystone) v3.

Enhanced Amazon S3 and OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) compatibility, including support for AWS v4 Client Signatures, object versioning, bulk deletes, and more.

 Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 also debuts Red Hat Storage Console 2, a storage management and monitoring system. It is targeted to simplify both the deployment and operational management of Ceph, making scale-out storage accessible to a wider range of users while reducing deployment time. It offers a graphical interface focused on ease of use.

 Ranga Rangachari, vice president and general manager of storage at Red Hat said: “We are thrilled to release Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 and expand our capabilities around ease of use and robust object storage support. This latest version of the product is the most significant update to Red Hat Ceph Storage since we acquired Inktank in 2014. We believe our customers will find Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 to be a full-featured, technically-advanced storage platform that’s easy to use and helps them manage vast quantities of data at the enterprise level. Red Hat Ceph Storage 2, combined with Red Hat’s broad services and support offerings, gives customers a strong foundation to enable their digital transformation.”

Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 is scheduled for availability this summer.  There is also a page where you can learn more about it.