NEC Corporation has launched the NEC Cloud System (OSS building model), a solution that supports the building and operation of OpenStack-based cloud infrastructure.
The new solution combines open standard technologies such as OpenStack and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) with NEC’s technologies for building mission critical systems. It provides telecommunications carriers, data center operators, and IT departments with a cloud infrastructure featuring high reliability and scalability. Based on its track record of providing NEC Cloud IaaS, a cloud infrastructure service, and building cloud environments for users, NEC makes the necessary requirements and functions into standard models and tests their combinations in advance. This enables the infrastructure to be introduced within a timeframe that is up to 50% shorter than before.
NEC has recently established a specialised team dedicated to OpenStack, and a total of 1,000 NEC staff members provide comprehensive customer support, including those in charge of development and system engineers. In addition, NEC will continue to improve the quality of the solution from the viewpoint of non-functional requirements (such as availability, performance, operability, and scalability) to provide methods for solving or avoiding problems promptly when building systems or providing support. NEC will also provide functions that are customised for individual user needs and contribute to the OpenStack Community.
In recent years, there has been a shift to the cloud by not only development environments and informational systems, but also mission critical systems, all of which is aimed at reducing operating costs. In addition, the launch of new businesses that use big data, mobile equipment, and social media are also demanding the use of advanced technologies. This need for cost optimisation and technological advancement has been accelerating the demand for open-source software (OSS). However, building and operating mission critical systems on OSS-based infrastructure involves certain challenges that include quality issues and the high cost of building and maintenance attributed to insufficient technical know-how.
In the OpenStack Community, NEC participates in the development of key components as a core developer and contributes to enhancing and improving the functions of OpenStack. With the new solution, NEC will provide comprehensive support for processes from the design of the cloud infrastructure to building and operating it, by making use of the technical capabilities it has developed in major OSS communities including the OpenStack Community.
Major features of the new solution are as follows.
- Provision of open cloud infrastructure with high reliability and scalability
For the core function of the cloud infrastructure, NEC has adopted Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 7 (a highly scalable Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering), which is based on the latest version of OpenStack, ahead of other companies. OSS has also been adopted for the management, monitoring, and control functions of infrastructure. By having these pieces of OSS work in conjunction with each other, the new solution provides an open cloud infrastructure with high reliability and scalability that can be applied to the Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) of telecommunications carriers, the cloud service infrastructure of telecommunications carriers and data center operators, and the infrastructure of companies’ information systems.
NEC will also provide functions that are customised for individual user needs and contribute to the community. Specifically, NEC will suggest functions for integrated management for the community that work in conjunction with virtual appliances such as virtual firewalls and virtual IPS/IDS as countermeasures against unauthorised access from external networks, which has been an increasing threat in recent years. This will keep user systems open and help to optimise costs through flexible hardware selection.
What is more, in the spring of 2016, NEC will provide a management function for using data centers (DCs) in multiple locations as a single virtual DC by applying SDN technology. This will increase the scalability of data centers and allow them to be used as systems for business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) as well.
- Support for the development of a cloud environment within a shorter timeframe and improvement of the efficiency of operations
Based on its track record of providing NEC Cloud IaaS, a cloud infrastructure service, and building cloud environments for users, NEC makes the necessary requirements and functions into standard models and tests their combinations in advance. The selection and flexible combination of functions based on users’ requirements and scale will enable a cloud environment to be built within a timeframe that is up to 50% shorter than if it is built individually. In addition, NEC also helps improve the operating efficiency and quality of services by providing functions that automate the routine work of an administrator, such as the delivery of virtual servers and network setup, and an operation guide for standardising the operating process.
- Contribution to improving the quality of OpenStack and the support system
NEC has recently established a specialised team dedicated to OpenStack, which evaluates the solution from the viewpoint of non-functional requirements (such as availability, performance, operability, and scalability) to provide methods for solving or avoiding problems promptly when building systems or providing support. It thus offers a full range of support to users and provides corrections to the community, thereby contributing to improving the quality of OpenStack. In addition to the specialised team, NEC has organised a total of 1,000 staff members, including those in charge of development and system engineers, to provide customers with comprehensive support from the suggestion of an open cloud infrastructure based on OpenStack to the design, building, and operation of the infrastructure, and support for the OSS. Moving forward, NEC will implement measures including the improvement of its capabilities to respond flexibly to business needs, such as ensuring greater reliability and the provision of services related to IoT and PaaS.
