SUSE helps customers deliver Cloud-based services faster and easier

SUSE Studio helps customers build software application images in several formats and then deploy them on physical hardware in virtualised environments or cloud environments. SUSE Studio stores all build-related information so customers can quickly reproduce, change, test, and deploy updates via a simple user interface. The SUSE Studio user interface is easily accessed via a web browser.

"ownCloud provides enterprises completely on-site file sync and share software that integrates with existing infrastructure, is easily extensible, and provides the same user experience that employees expect of a file sync and share solution", says Matt Richards, VP of Products at ownCloud. "With SUSE Studio we can rapidly package, configure and deliver ownCloud images for our customers. By streamlining the entire process through the intuitive SUSE Studio interface, configuration, maintenance and management of software applications is just a few mouse clicks away. Our customers find it easier to download, test and deploy ownCloud, which has a significant impact on our top line, and we can package our software quickly, easily and repeatably, which helps our bottom line."

SUSE Studio 1.3 includes new features to improve cloud and virtual deployments. The latest update also improves application management across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Cloud Enhancements
SUSE Studio 1.3 is tightly integrated with SUSE Cloud, SUSE’s OpenStack-powered cloud computing platform. With SUSE Studio 1.3, customers can choose SUSE Cloud as their pre-defined application image format. Additionally, using the SUSE Studio webhooks feature, all SUSE Cloud images built in SUSE Studio are automatically and immediately imported into SUSE Cloud. By making it easier to provision new cloud workloads and deliver the necessary computing resources for their business, IT staff can improve cycle times.

Enhancements on the public cloud side include the ability for Amazon Web Services customers to upload and launch Amazon EC2 instances directly from SUSE Studio. SUSE Studio 1.3 delivers an improved interface for Amazon EC2 deployments. Additionally, SUSE Studio 1.3 now supports all Amazon EC2 regions.

Virtualisation Enhancements
According to the Enterprise Strategy Group, IT environments are extremely heterogeneous, with multiple operating systems, hardware platforms, and business applications running in tandem. In a recent survey of 440 IT professionals, 65 percent of respondent organisations reported using more than one hypervisor.

SUSE Studio 1.3 makes it even easier for IT organisations to deploy a multi-hypervisor strategy by adding all necessary drivers for integration with Hyper-V Manager. Now virtual applications built with SUSE Studio seamlessly run in Windows Server environments. In addition, Studio 1.3 supports native KVM, the preferred format for SUSE Cloud and OpenStack.

SUSE Studio 1.3 supports all strategic virtualisation and cloud platforms including VMware, VirtualBox, Xen, KVM, Hyper-V, OVF virtual machines, SUSE Cloud, OpenStack, and Amazon EC2. It increases software portability for virtual and cloud environments and reduces development costs with application images that are optimised and ready to run on various cloud and virtualisation platforms.

Lifecycle Management
SUSE Studio 1.3 delivers a simple way to maintain and patch images built using SUSE Studio. A new update tab in SUSE Studio allows administrators to add SUSE Lifecycle Management Server as a management agent before image building begins. SUSE Lifecycle Management Server gives customers a single platform to manage entitlements and deliver unified updates to images deployed using SUSE Studio.

"SUSE Studio, especially in combination with SUSE Manager and SUSE Cloud, is designed to ease application deployment and help save costs and resources while providing a safer journey into the cloud", says Andreas Jaeger, Senior Product Manager at SUSE. “Our newest version, SUSE Studio 1.3, is the next step for improving efficient deployment and life-cycle management of applications in virtual and cloud environments."