Dell Open Sources OpenStack Installer

OpenStack is getting a big vote of confidence from Dell.

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is launching new commercial support and services for the open source cloud computing platform. OpenStack started a year ago with code contributions from NASA and Rackspace and has since grown to more than 88 member companies, including Dell.

The Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution includes a reference architecture based on Dell PowerEdge C Series servers and is intended to help rapidly deploy a cloud infrastructure.

Igoe noted that the Dell solution is based on the recent OpenStack Cactus release that debuted in April. Dell is also going a step further and contributing new code into the open source base.

“Dell has taken the core open source code, and we’ve wrapped around that a piece of technology that we developed called Crowbar, which is an installation tool,” John Igoe, Executive Director for Dell Cloud Solutions told InternetNews.com.

Igoe noted Dell built crowbar because it saw a real need for an installer technology. As to why it is making crowbar available as open source, instead of keeping it as a proprietary competitive advantage, Igoe said it is an issue of credibility.

Read the full story at ServerWatch:
Dell Launches OpenStack Cloud Platform Solution