CliQr Manages Applications Across Hybrid Clouds
As more hybrid clouds are deployed, the cloud and workload management ecosystem continues to expand.
Case in point is hybrid cloud management specialist CliQr Technologies that this week rolled out new features for its CloudCenter management platform, including "drag and drop" application profiling and a batch of image management options.
The Silicon Valley company is promoting its new CloudCenter tool as a way to find the optimum cloud execution venue for aligning applications and uses cases. The intended result is to transform hybrid cloud computing into an IT utility by adding the features required to manage one or multiple applications, clouds, or users on a single platform, CliQr CEO Gaurav Manglik explained in a statement.
CliQr also said it is partnering with NTT Innovation Institute, the R&D arm of the Japanese telecommunications giant, to deliver lifecycle management for new and existing applications. These include a suite of hybrid cloud management services for NTT clouds, according to NTT CEO Srini Koushik.
The new CloudCenter platform also is intended to address migration, governance, and management of multiple applications, clouds, and users. The platform includes a drag and drop graphical user interface for building descriptions of application service requirements. Drawings created with the interface can then be provisioned on physical, private, or public clouds supported by CloudCenter.
Acknowledging that many customers are approaching the cloud from different starting points, CliQr said it is also offering options for cloud image management. The expanded image support includes an image import feature that allows customers to reuse images. CloudCenter injects the images so that applications created through the platform remain managed by CliQr.
A second option transforms images and moves them between sources, target platforms, and cloud environments, including Amazon Cloud Services (AWS), VMware, OpenStack, Hewlett Packard Helion, and others. Once moved, workloads can be bossed around by CliQr's lifecycle management tools.
CliQr said its latest release also expands access to cloud services such as the relational database and elastic load balancing services from AWS along with Google Cloud Platform's SQL relational database service.
The new CloudCenter features also include support for physical along with existing support for public and private clouds, the company added. Beginning with Cisco's Unified Computing System director, CloudCenter can manage workloads on physical clouds without the use of a hypervisor, thereby speeding up access to a physical machine. The feature also expands cloud options for application deployment, the company noted.
Meanwhile, another cloud and workload management vendor, Xangati, announced a software suite earlier this month designed to continuously track, pinpoint, and fix problems related to application or server performance across virtualized networks.
Along with highly virtualized networks, Xangati said its suite also targets private and hybrid clouds, including converged infrastructure based FlexPod-based systems, which are the combination of storage from NetApp and UCS systems and switches from Cisco.
