RightScale Cloud Journal

Cloud Computing Expo on Ulitzer

RightScale, Inc., today launched the next generation of the RightScale Cloud Management Platform that delivers increased application portability across cloud infrastructures. With this release, RightScale has enhanced its ServerTemplate technology to provide automatic configuration of servers for different clouds, system architectures and operating systems. The new portable ServerTemplates enable users to take advantage of the specific features and functionality offered by each cloud provider, including Amazon and Rackspace, while retaining complete portability.

RightScale made this announcement today at the inaugural RightScale User Meetup event in Santa Clara, Calif., where the RightScale community has gathered to learn about RightScale technology, hear real-world cloud computing case studies and share experiences with fellow RightScale users.

"As cloud computing matures, more and more cloud providers are emerging with very different architectures and a diversity of options for servers, storage, and network architecture," said Thorsten von Eicken, CTO and founder at RightScale. "Unlike emerging common cloud APIs that promote a 'lowest common denominator' approach to cloud portability, RightScale's new ServerTemplates enable true portability, while also letting users take advantage of the unique capabilities of different clouds. We see this as a huge step in helping IT organizations embrace and benefit from a multi-cloud world."

Portable ServerTemplates: Dynamic Configuration for Different Cloud Infrastructures
The RightScale Cloud Management Platform lets any organization tap the enormous power of cloud computing for scalable, cost-effective IT infrastructure on demand, with complete control and portability. RightScale ServerTemplates, a core component of the RightScale platform, innovate beyond machine images to dynamically configure servers in the context of an overall system architecture, or what RightScale calls a cloud "deployment." RightScale's ServerTemplates have always supported a wide range of automation to simplify application management in the cloud.

The new, enhanced RightScale ServerTemplates provide a significantly higher level of portability by automatically configuring servers for a specific cloud, application architecture and operating system. With the new ServerTemplates, RightScale users can more easily deploy applications on their selected cloud using all the unique features of that cloud while retaining portability to other clouds. Furthermore, independent software vendors (ISVs) can now build one ServerTemplate that automatically installs their software on any RightScale-supported cloud infrastructure.

To implement these portable ServerTemplates, RightScale has incorporated Opscode's Chef, an open source server configuration management framework, into its ServerTemplate technology. Because RightScale's ServerTemplates have always been modular and flexible, users can now specify what resources are needed for each server, and the ServerTemplate selects, at runtime, the right implementation for the specific cloud and deployment architecture. Chef "Recipes" -- Chef's core building blocks -- then execute the implementation in an operating system-independent way. Finally, RightScale's new agent, RightLink, orchestrates the execution of RightScripts and Chef Recipes at boot, during operation, or at shut down. RightLink also manages the cross-server communication required to ensure each server is configured and connected to operate within a larger cloud deployment. The combination of these three technologies enables users to take advantage of unique infrastructures and architecture designs to build truly agile and automated infrastructure without sacrificing portability.

In addition, through the integration of Chef technology with the RightScale platform, the growing Chef development community can now distribute Chef Recipes through the leading cloud management platform to a host of real customers running business-critical applications on the cloud today. As Opscode's technology continues to gain momentum in the cloud community, RightScale customers will be able to leverage an extensive collection of Chef Cookbooks and Recipes to maximize application portability.

Availability
An alpha release of the first RightScale portable ServerTemplates will be available on November 3, with the latest release of the RightScale Cloud Management Platform. These ServerTemplates launch fully functional front-end architectures on either Amazon or Rackspace clouds. These premium front-end architectures are comprised of the HAProxy load balancer and either PHP or Rails application servers. In addition, a Rails All-in-One stack is available as a free reference stack for those just starting out with the new RightScale ServerTemplates. Over time, RightScale will continue to adapt its set of premium ServerTemplates to address different cloud platforms.

RightScale's Thorsten von Eicken will discuss how to take advantage of the multi-cloud world that exists today at the Cloud Computing Expo in Santa Clara, Calif. RightScale will also be exhibiting the RightScale platform and new RightScale ServerTemplates at the Expo in booth #106, today through Wednesday, Nov. 4.

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