CERN contributes to OpenStack reference architecture

The idea of developing reference architectures for cloud environments is a good one, so long as it is seen as a useful starting point for building a cloud architecture rather than the rules by which cloud users have to play. But if the reference architecture is aimed at OpenStack, one of the main contenders as a standardised technology stack on which clouds can be built, then the results could prove useful.

Just such a project has been announced involving Rackspace and the European organisation for nuclear research, CERN. Rackspace has signed up for a three-year contributor agreement with CERN’s openlab. It plans to deliver a hybrid cloud solution featuring both public and private clouds powered by OpenStack. The objective is to help CERN get deeper into its research into the origins of the universe.

The day job for CERN openlab is to provide a framework to test and validate cutting-edge information technologies and services in partnership with industry. The Rackspace partnership already has plans for several joint initiatives, with the main focus being on creating a reference architecture and operational model for federated cloud services between the company’s Private cloud and Public Cloud services and CERN’s own OpenStack powered clouds.

Though initially geared to the needs of research, the development of such a reference architecture could prove significant to a much wider user base. OpenStack is pitching to become one of the key foundations of future cloud environments and, as the name implies, is geared to the objectives of the open source community.

This community, of course, is already well-entrenched as source of much of the cloud’s existing software technologies. Much of the code in new coud applications and services runs on Linux and is developed using open source languages and tools. Having a common, open source technology stack as the underpinning for these applications and services, plus a reference architecture setting out common solutions for implementation and deployment, stands a good chance of removing much of the technical problems from the users.

It should also help ease problems as users seek to have different cloud services collaborate as easily and flexibly as possible.   

“This is a landmark moment for Rackspace, as we feel this is an opportunity to take our already mutually beneficial relationship with CERN to new heights,” said Jim Curry, SVP and general manager of Rackspace Private Cloud. “Through ongoing collaboration with CERN openlab, we will broaden the global reach of our hybrid cloud solutions, while simultaneously helping to set the pace of innovation within the field of particle physics.”

CERN openlab supports its physicists and engineers in their work with the famed Large Hadron Collider in studying the basic constituents of matter - the fundamental particles – work which produces more than 25 Petabytes of data annually. CERN is using OpenStack to manage resources across the two datacentres that power the LHC.

Rackspace previously delivered a solution that would allow CERN to burst workloads into its public cloud. Through the new collaborative agreement, the Rackspace Private Cloud platform will now be deployed onto servers running production physics experiments. This will be a hybrid cloud and part of the collaboration will be to jointly test the seamless federation between private and public cloud platforms to accommodate excess workloads.

 “We have just celebrated the 20^thanniversary of CERN’s decision to make its World Wide Web software freely available. We definitely see great value in open source technologies like OpenStack. They foster continuous technological improvements through community contributions, while also giving us the ability to quickly address challenges, such as massive scaling, by leveraging the work of others,” said Tim Bell, infrastructure manager in the IT department at CERN.