Inspur just launched its cloud operating system In-Cloud V4.0 based on OpenStack and emphasizing opening-up, safety, intelligence and flexibility, and started the 'Yuntu Plan' for the cloud computing ecosystem. 19 enterprises including Mirantis, Aliyun, AsiaInfo Security and Qiniu became the first members.

Opening-up -- the general trend

The most prominent feature of In-Cloud V4.0 is that it completely supports the OpenStack framework. In-Cloud V4.0 has mature OpenStack built-in and provides richer API interfaces for application developers, operators and maintainers to facilitate secondary development and integration, easily realizing the software-defined environment of SDC, SDN and SDS based on the OpenStack standard. Inspur will also provide a free trial version of In-Cloud V4.0 to allow more users to experience the convenience offered by open-source cloud computing.

Vice President of the Inspur Group Peng Zhen said,"The thriving OpenStack community verifies that the open source and opening-up ideas are indeed the general IT development trends of the future. Adherence to opening-up is the only choice of Inspur's cloud computing strategies as well as the development road of Inspur's fusion framework. On this basis, In-Cloud OS will become a strategic product of IT infrastructure of the software-defined data center created by Inspur. The mature and available OpenStack framework frees all users from vendor lock-in, accelerates business innovation and saves costs, thus presenting the various benefits of open source computing."

In future plans, In-Cloud OS will include six major modules: the release version of Incloud OpenStack, InCloud Sphere for software-defined computing, InCloud Storage for software-defined storage, InCloud Network for the software-defined network, InCloud Manager for the operation and maintenance management platform of the data center, and InCloud Security for the safety of software definition. All modules are component-based. Users can select any modules or integrated solutions at will and deploy them to the business environment.

Opening-up -- intelligence and safety are equally important

In-Cloud V4.0 is the most advanced cloud operating system in the industry in terms of openness and functions. It emphasizes open source and safety, and is characterized by a high level of openness, all-around safety and advanced intelligence and flexibility.

1. Openness

In addition to its full support of OpenStack, In-Cloud V4.0 offers API interfaces, supports the fusion of various cloud computing forms such as private clouds, public clouds and industrial clouds, realizes the heterogeneous hardware platform management from X86 servers to minicomputers, supports fusion management covering mainstream virtualization software in the industry such as InCloud Sphere, vSphere, XenServer, Hyper-V and PowerVM, and eliminates users' concern about vendor lock-in.

2. Safety

In-Cloud OS V4.0 supports remote disaster recovery and 'two places and three centers' cross-region multi-data center management and realizes the all-round safety of data and business from three dimensions: namely system level, virtualization and application. In the 'e-government' cloud project of the Qingdao Municipal Government, In-Cloud OS V4.0 effectively integrated the IT resources of 28 departments, 300+ servers, and 620+ network and storage devices in Qingdao. In addition to external e-government services, it also built the first disaster recovery dual-active cloud computing center in China in which the straight-line distance between the e-government cloud platforms of cities reached 120km to realize the centralized dispatching of the resources of data centers in two different places and the automatic drift of virtual machines to greatly enhance the anti-risk capability of the platform.

3. Intelligence and flexibility

In-Cloud V4.0 supports the customization of process nodes and types, the flexible matching of complex business demandsand the centralized monitoring of the resources of seven major types of software and hardware including servers, storage, networks, operating systems, middleware, databases and business applications; more than 20,000 items are monitored, and all-round and three-dimensional monitoring is thus formed. This generates a visual business topology based on incidence relations among resources included in the business to facilitate business management. It also predicts business bottlenecks and gives early warnings according to strategies so as to deliver automatic operation and maintenance.

Build the 'Cloud Ecosystem' and keep an open mind

The launch of the 'Yuntu Plan' demonstrates Inspur's devotion to the construction of a more open and perfect cloud computing ecosystem. To this end, Inspur will promote the system of three major 'partners' i.e. technology, solutions and service. It plans to cooperate with more than 50 technical partners, more than 100 solution partners and more than 1,000 service partners to jointly provide users with open, integrated and safe cloud computing services.

Currently, 19 partners have joined Inspur's Yuntu Plan: Mirantis, AsiaInfo Security, Ali Cloud, Qiniu, VMware, Citrix, Redhat, Intel, China Telecom e-surfing cloud, Ruijie, Sangfor, United Electronics, TOPSEC, Beiming, Changhong IT, EISOO, UniteStack, EasyStack and 99Cloud.

General Manager of the Inspur Information Cloud Product Department Zhao Wenhui said, "We hope that the implementation of the Yuntu Plan will unite partners in different fields to provide users with more perfect IT system support, more flexible investment models and a more open IT environment."

In the trend of opening-up, the release of In-Cloud OS V4.0 and the launch of the Yuntu Plan will offer strong support for Inspur's cloud computing strategy; the former strengthens Inspur's 'soft power' in the SDDC field and further stresses the fusion framework idea of 'hardware reconfiguration + software definition', while the latter focuses on the construction of the cloud computing ecosystem and can provide users with complete cloud computing services based on laaS. It is safe to say that an open attitude will attract more supporters of Inspur and enable it to play a significant role in the cloud computing field.