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    Virtustream Enables Federation of Enterprise-Class Clouds

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    Network Evolution Key to Driving Cloud Expansion

    One of the biggest issues that any IT organization has with cloud computing is a loss of the sense of control they have over those resources. As part of an effort to restore that sense of control, Virtustream, with the release of version 3.0 of its xStream cloud management software, is giving customers the ability to more granularly control application workloads running on any public or private cloud.

    Virtustream CEO and CTO Kevin Reid says the company’s xStream software carves cloud resources into defined units of compute, memory, storage and networking resources using Micro-VM technology that presents the IT organization with a logical abstraction of those physical resources.

    With the addition of support for the open source OpenStack cloud management in this release, Virtustream is making it possible to deploy xStream on local private clouds in addition to the public cloud service it offers. Reid says the end goal is to allow IT organizations to have maximum control over their IT supply chain regardless of where IT infrastructure is located. As the first instantiation of that strategy, Virtustream previously announced that IBM has licensed xStream to make the SAP HANA in-memory computing platform available on its SoftLayer cloud service.

    Ultimately, Reid says that via xStream, IT organizations will gain access to a rich set of federated cloud services that can be controlled via Micro-VM software. Instead of paying too much for a license that provides more capacity than they need, Reid says xStream is designed to dynamically optimize IT infrastructure consumption to the needs of any particular application workload. In fact, according to Reid, Virtustream is one of only a handful of cloud service providers to guarantee application performance within their cloud environments.

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    Version 3.0 of xStream also allows IT to apply policies concerning where and when data can be processed and located. This version also has an xStream Application Management Framework portal through which IT organizations can manage cloud applications.

    Finally, Virtustream provides analytics that help IT organizations optimize cloud resource consumption and support for security monitoring services that identify potential security threats to the cloud environment.

    When it comes to cloud computing, simply outsourcing an application and making that application a part of an extended enterprise are worlds apart. The cloud, by definition, is going to be hybrid for years to come, but the ultimate differentiator in the cloud is going to be the quality of the enterprise management experience.

    Mike Vizard
    Mike Vizard
    Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a contributor to publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

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