NetApp extends OpenStack

With Manila File Share as a Service, users can also support storage and test environments on a big data scale, in which data is moved flexibly across different clouds. Another novelty: Manila now enables free exchange between public and private clouds.

As the founder of the Manila project and a member of the OpenStack Foundation, NetApp has contributed extensive expertise and technology to help application developers choose the right cloud storage model for their needs.

You also benefit from the flexibility of shared file systems when handling data. As file shares can be consumed as a service, they can be provided and migrated automatically - regardless of where the cloud is located and whether it is a private or public version. This makes it possible for the first time for cloud users and applications to provide and manage shared file systems independently.

"File sharing as a cloud service has been a huge gap in the OpenStack feature set. Now that Manila is production-ready, our Data Ontap customers can use file sharing services for their cloud applications.

This is a further step towards making it easier to access and use data within the Cloud Data Fabric"

explains Phil Brotherton, Vice President Data Fabric Group at NetApp.

Cloud-enabled functions of Clustered Data Ontap

NetApp Clustered Data Ontap Storage Software drives the deployment of Manila. The software provides data management for the cloud implementation of OpenStack, which significantly increases efficiency, availability and scalability.

Advantage for customers: They benefit from data protection and multi-client capability throughout the entire data lifecycle.

Classic workloads in the cloud

Many critical business applications rely on shared file systems regardless of their environment. Before Manila, file sharing in cloud environments was not possible, alternatives were time consuming and difficult to configure. With Manila, users can easily and efficiently set up a service-oriented infrastructure.

Database as a Service: Manila works with both custom and Trove-based services to automate deployment with databases.

Development environments, processing in large groups, large distributed applications: Manila is suitable as storage for development and test environments. The solution is scalable across hundreds or thousands of nodes that need to access a common set of source files, binaries and other resources.

Content repositories: Manila provides a robust, high-throughput file system for content management systems that deliver information to a variety of applications, including websites, online publications and archives.

Big Data: Manila provides the scalability and performance for big data applications that require high throughput of compute nodes, while maintaining read-after-write consistency and low-latency file operations.

Analytics: Manila supports custom and Sahara-based analytics-as-a-service capabilities to automate access to file systems and support MapReduce workloads.

Virtual desktops, user directories, cross-collaboration: Manila offers storage for large organizations with many users who need access to shared data.

Administrators can use Manila to create a file system for individual users in an organization and assign permissions for users and groups at file or directory level. Manila also facilitates collaboration within a department across operating system boundaries.