OpenStack Libery Arrives, Includes Container Smarts

It was all the way back in 2010, when we at OStatic first did a short post on an emerging open source cloud computing platform called OpenStack. "The open platform will go head-to-head with cloud platforms from VMware and Microsoft, and will likely compete with other open source cloud platfroms such as Eucalyptus Systems'," we noted at the time.

Fast-forward to today, and OpenStack is a gargantuan success, changing the face of cloud computing everywhere. Now, the 12th release of OpenStack, dubbed Liberty, is out. Here are details.

Billed as "the most widely deployed open source software for building clouds," OpenStack has not only transformed organizations internally, but it has given rise to a whole ecosystem of businesses focused on it.

Among the improvements in the Liberty release are finer-grained management controls, performance enhancements for large deployments and more powerful tools for managing new technologies like containers in production environments. New capabilities like common library adoption and better configuration management have been added in direct response to the requests of OpenStack cloud operators.

The new version also adds role-based access control (RBAC) for the Heat orchestration and Neutron networking projects. These controls allow operators to fine tune security settings at all levels of network and orchestration functions and APIs. 

In Liberty, users gain performance and stability improvements that include the initial version of Nova Cells v2, which provides an updated model to support very large and multi-location compute deployments. Additionally, Liberty users will see improvements in the scalability and performance of the Horizon dashboard, Neutron networking Cinder block storage services and during upgrades to Nova’s compute services. 

OpenStack is a favorite platform for organizations implementing NFV (network functions virtualization) services in their networking topologies, and the Libery release advances NFV-related features.

The announcement adds:

"Liberty also brings the first full release of the Magnum containers management project. Out of the gate, Magnum supports popular container cluster management tools Kubernetes, Mesos and Docker Swarm. Magnum makes it easier to adopt container technology by tying into existing OpenStack services such as Nova, Ironic and Neutron. Further improvements are planned with new project, Kuryr, which integrates directly with native container networking components such as libnetwork."

"The Heat orchestration project adds dozens of new resources for management, automation and orchestration of the expanded capabilities in Liberty. Improvements in management and scale, including APIs to expose what resources and actions are available, all filtered by RBAC are included in the new release."

According to Jonathan Bryce, executive director, OpenStack Foundation:  

“Liberty is a milestone release because it underscores the ability of a global, diverse community to agree on technical decisions, amend project governance in response to maturing software and the voice of the marketplace, then build and ship software that gives users and operators what they need. All of this happens in an open community where anyone can participate, giving rise to an extensible platform built to embrace technologies that work today and those on the horizon.”