VMware, Inc. unveiled VMware Integrated OpenStack 5, which will be the newest release of VMware's OpenStack distribution that is on the OpenStack Queens release. Available in both Carrier and Data Center Editions, VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will introduce new features to help customers simplify, scale, and secure production OpenStack environments. Through open, vendor-neutral API access to VMware's industry-leading virtualized infrastructure, communications service providers (CSPs) and enterprises have a proven, high-performance platform based on an open architecture to accelerate production network functions virtualization (NFV) workload deployment and service innovation.

VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will be one of the first commercial OpenStack distributions to comply with the OpenStack Foundation's 2018.02 interoperability guidelines. An active member of the OpenStack community, VMware packages, tests, and supports all major components of the distribution, including the full open source OpenStack code in a multi-cloud architecture. VMware Integrated OpenStack provides customers with the fastest and most efficient solution to deploy and operate OpenStack clouds optimized for VMware's NFV and software-defined data center (SDDC) infrastructure, with advanced automation and onboarding. Eligible existing VMware Integrated OpenStack customers will be able to take advantage of the software's built-in upgrade capability to upgrade seamlessly to VMware Integrated OpenStack 5.

"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, vice president of products and solutions, Telco NFV Business Unit, VMware. "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."

Automation, Performance, Scale, and Simplicity for Telco/NFV OpenStack Deployments 
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. With the newest update to VMware Integrated OpenStack-Carrier Edition, CSPs will be able to take advantage of key new NFV functionality including:

• Accelerated Data Plane Performance: will enable customers to achieve significant improvements in application response time, reduce network latencies, and breakthrough network performance via support of NSX Managed Virtual Distributed Switch in Enhanced Data Path mode and DPDK as well as optimized data plane techniques in VMware vSphere.
• Elastic Multi-Tenant Resource Scaling: will provide resource guarantee and resource isolation to each tenant so that no other tenant can either consume from a given resource pool nor access the resource pool. It will also support elastic resource scaling allowing CSPs to add new resources dynamically across different vSphere clusters to adapt to traffic conditions or transition from pilot phase to production in place This will enable CSPs to isolate one type of workload/VNF from another, as well as maintain resource availability as the load increases.
• OpenStack "In a Box" for 5G and Edge Computing: small footprint and highly resilient micro data center form factor will enable deployment "in a box" for 5G and edge computing. Customers will have full control over these micro data centers and apps at the edge via automated API-driven orchestration and lifecycle management. The solution will help tackle enterprise use cases such as utilities, oil and gas drilling platforms, point-of-sale applications, security cameras, and manufacturing plants and Telco oriented use cases such Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), latency sensitivity VNF deployments, and operational support systems (OSS).
• Self-Driving Operations and Service Assurance: will provides 360-degree visibility with real-time insights, root cause analysis (RCA) and remediation for OpenStack-based environments, including advanced workload analytics, predictive resource scheduling and balancing, and high-scale monitoring for VMs and containers across a single virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM).

Enhanced Scale, Availability and Security for all customers 
VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will enable CSP and enterprise customers to make the most of advancements in Queens to support mission-critical workloads, across container and cloud-native application environments. VMware has added significant development to the VMware Integrated OpenStack on top of what has been delivered via the Queens release. New capabilities will include:

• Massive Scale: run up 500 hosts and 15,000 VMs in a single region, and will introduce support for multiple regions at once with monitoring and metrics at scale.
• High Availability for Mission-Critical Workloads: create snapshots, clones and backups of attached volumes to dramatically improve VM and application uptime via enhancements to the Cinder volume driver.
• Unified Virtualized Environment: ability to deploy and run both VM and container workloads on a single virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) and with a single network fabric based on VMware NSX-T Data Center. This architecture will enable customers to seamlessly deploy hybrid workloads where some components run in containers while others run in VMs.
• Advanced Security: consolidate and simplify user and role management based on enhancements to Keystone, including the use of application credentials as well as system role assignment. VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 will take security to new levels with encryption of internal API traffic, Keystone to Keystone federation, and support for major identity management providers including VMware Identity Manager.
• Optimization and Standardization of DNS Services: scalable, on-demand DNS as a Service via Designate. Customers can auto-register any VM or Virtual Network Function (VNF) to a corporate approved DNS server instead of manually registering newly provisioned hosts through Designate.
• Improved User Interface: simplifies multi-tier and L3 routed network implementations via the latest Horizon dashboard. Ability to enable/disable NAT on the OpenStack NSX tenant router, and association to Neutron availability zones directly from the Horizon user interface, allows developers to tailor the network to fit their apps.

Pricing and Availability
VMware Integrated OpenStack 5 is expected to become available by the end of VMware's Q2 FY2019 which ends on August 3, 2018.