• Red Hat releases OpenStack Platform 13
• Paves the way for Red Hat OpenShift on OpenStack
• VMware releases Integrated OpenStack 5
• Available in both Carrier and Data Centre Editions

Red Hat and VMware were both quick out of the blocks to support the latest OpenStack “Queens” release, with announcements of new distros at the OpenStack summit this week. VMware unveiled its Integrated OpenStack 5, which will be the newest release of the company’s OpenStack distribution based on the latest Queens release and available in both carrier and data centre editions. Through open, vendor-neutral API access to VMware’s industry-leading virtualized infrastructure, the vendor says CSPs and enterprises have a proven, high-performance platform based on an open architecture to accelerate production NFV workload deployment and service innovation.

Integrated OpenStack 5 will be one of the first commercial OpenStack distributions to comply with the OpenStack Foundation’s 2018.02 interoperability guidelines. VMware says it enables customers to deploy and operate OpenStack clouds optimized for VMware’s NFV and software-defined data centre (SDDC) infrastructure, with advanced automation and onboarding.

“We continue be a leader in OpenStack innovation by being one of the first companies to update to the latest OpenStack Queens, and we continue in our relentless dedication to providing CSPs, mobile operators, cloud providers, and enterprises the fastest path to successful, production OpenStack deployment,” said Gabriele Di Piazza, VP of products and solutions, Telco NFV Business Unit at VMware. “Integrated OpenStack 5 will enable customers to achieve the massive scale required to power Telco and private clouds globally, and address NFV and edge computing use cases as telecom networks evolve towards 5G.”

VMware Integrated OpenStack Carrier Edition addresses specific requirements of CSPs deploying NFV-based network services spanning a host of current and 5G-ready use cases across core and edge. New features include accelerated data plane performance, elastic multi-tenant resource scaling, self-driving operations and service assurance, as well as small footprint OpenStack “In a Box” for 5G and Edge Computing.

“Dell EMC and VMware are focused on delivering fully-integrated, jointly-developed solutions that combine scale, performance and simplified operations from infrastructure through the virtualization platform,” said Kevin Shatzkamer, VP service provider solutions, Dell EMC. “As the industry continues to embrace open source and open APIs as a key building block of their future virtualized networks and clouds, VMware continues to deliver a robust OpenStack solution combined with well-established virtualization expertise.”

Red Hat announced Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13, the latest version of Red Hat’s scalable and agile cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution. Based on the OpenStack “Queens” release, its OpenStack Platform 13 provides a foundation for enterprises using hybrid cloud for digital transformation strategies, helps to minimize the pains often involved with new technology adoption with its new Fast Forward upgrades feature, and is designed to improve integration across the emerging technology stack.

"Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 offers a way for customers to take advantage of the key features of each OpenStack release, without sacrificing stability,” said Radhesh Balakrishnan, General Manager for OpenStack at Red Hat. “With Fast Forward upgrades, Red Hat is bringing a feature to market that will help to simplify the OpenStack upgrade process for IT operations.” 

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform also helps OpenStack Platform 13 serve as an extensible platform for cloud-native workloads, providing a single architecture that brings the features of Linux containers on Kubernetes orchestration to scalable OpenStack infrastructure.

It is backed by an ecosystem of partners including Dell EMC, Intel, Lenovo, NetApp, and Rackspace, and enjoys broad support in the telecoms industry with Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC and Nokia. Building on this ecosystem, OpenStack Platform 13 is designed to deliver innovations that CSPs can use to deploy, run, and develop critical applications and end-user services, including integration and support for OpenDaylight.

"Success in today's digital economy hinges upon a new approach to IT, one that focuses on faster delivery of services and tighter integration with heterogeneous cloud technologies,” said Al Sadowski, research vice president at 451 Research. “Red Hat OpenStack Platform provides organizations with the tools needed to deliver and scale the latest innovations with a consistent operational experience."