HP has released version 7 of its Matrix Operating Environment which includes further support for multi tenancy private clouds plus a lot of new and improved features.
What is the Matrix?
CloudSystem Matrix utilizes proven technologies such as BladeSystem, Virtual Connect, Insight Management software, shared storage such as Fibre Channel SAN, and HP Networking products.
CloudSystem Matrix converges these capabilities together in powerful infrastructure-as-a-service solution with factory integration and implementation services. Matrix efficiently delivers standardized yet flexible infrastructure in “building blocks”. Additionally, CloudSystem Matrix is much more efficient to buy than individual components and is faster to implement.
The Matrix Operating Environment is the bit that ties it all together, to give you a single pane view on the entire solution and allows your to deploy private cloud based clients within it.
What’s in Version 7?
Matrix 7.0 adds the following new capabilities:
Matrix is introducing a new bursting capability, specifically with the service provider Savvis. Cloudbursting will allow an IT administrator to provision services beyond the “private cloud” managed by Matrix by “bursting” into a public cloud for a specific template-defined service. The resources in the public cloud are paid for only when used, and released when the usage is complete, offering optimized cost as well as flexible use when needs require resources beyond the scope of the private cloud.
Additionally, Matrix introduces improvements in scalability by allowing provisioning of VM’s up to 10,000 via the federated CMS architecture that was first enabled in Matrix 6.3. In the area of multi-tenancy, Matrix 7.0 provides enhancements in the management of VLANs, specifically allowing secure multi-tenancy through better separation of VLANs between different private cloud users.
Matrix 7.0 supports the HP ProLiant Gen8 servers.
In the area of storage, CloudSystem Matrix 7.0 offers enhancements to storage provisioning by offering the ability to automatically provision storage LUNs during the deployment of a service. This capability will is offered for both EVA and 3PAR FC storage arrays, and is built on enhancements to the existing Storage Provisioning Manager interface introduced in version 6.3 and is included with Matrix.
In terms of disaster recovery, Matrix 7.0 offers integration with 3PAR storage replication for automated recovery management of server profiles, in the same fashion that Matrix already supports EVA and XP storage replication.
Finally, Matrix continues to offer additional best-practice solutions via the CloudMaps program, including templates, workflows and sizers for key application providers utilizing the Matrix solution. Additional APIs have been introduced, supporting key customer and partner requests.
I like the inclusion of the ability to burst. Cloudbursting is an important part of any solution in my belief, as it allows the service provider to temporarily increase their capabilities in the event of a resource conflict/bottleneck. Obviously in a public and private cloud environment the service provider has to ensure that bursting to another cloud provider does not impinge on their clients or their own security or domicile requirements.
The addition of multi tenancy capabilities with version 7 introduces the role of a tenant or Organization:
The purpose of an IO Organization is to support a business entity that
- Has a number of users, or groups of users, that want to use an HP IO system to manage a set of resources
- Needs to keep information about users and services private and secure from interference from other organizations.
This separation of tenant from service provider allows the tenant to manage their own virtual infrastructure rather than relying on the service provide to perform these tasks. For more information of Multi Tenancy in version 7 click here
For more information of CloudSystem in general see here
Related Posts
