CIO Bulletin

Visualize, manage, automate, burst, scale workloads across any cloud: Abiquo

IT Infrastructure people have been discussing hybrid cloud for some time now, but it means different things to different people, and for different environments. The key characteristics of a True Hybrid cloud are: One user interface for all Infrastructure services, no matter what technology, location or feature/functions are available Design your application infrastructure once, deploy to any cloud, transparent to the user One API for interacting with all the services Unified account management, so users can interact with multiple infrastructures with a single secure, controlled and audited user account.

Delivering the True Hybrid cloud is Abiquo’s core business. Install your own on-premise Abiquo environment and manage hypervisors such as VMware ESX, Hyper-V, KVM, Oracle VM and XenServer, with any storage technology your hypervisor supports, alongside platforms including OpenStack and vCloud Director, public clouds from Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, DigitalOcean, Google and more. Many hybrid cloud solutions require you to switch between the different environments you’re working on, whether you’re creating a new application, getting reports, or auditing activity for compliance purposes. A True Hybrid cloud brings consistency across all your cloud environments, whether on a dedicated hypervisor or a public cloud provider.

True Hybrid Cloud

Abiquo’s Hybrid Cloud Management solution is the foundation for a true hybrid cloud service. Managed service providers, ISPs and managed hosting providers can create a cloud service with their choices of compute, network and storage, and blend with the public cloud services that their customers demand. Enterprise CIOs can use the same great solution to become an internal service enabler, improving the agility of their businesses while retaining control. Build your True Hybrid Cloud with your choice of VMware ESX, Hyper-V, KVM, Xen Server and Oracle VM hypervisors, OpenStack and vCloud Director private clouds, and Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, SoftLayer, DigitalOcean, Google Compute Engine, Rackspace, CloudSigma and Elastichosts public clouds. Add Docker hosts with the Abiquo agent to get true multi-tenant networking and security for your container environment.

Deep Integrations

Combine your choices of hypervisor, private cloud platform, Docker, public cloud provider, compute, network and storage resources to create a True Hybrid cloud platform for your business and customers to consume. Abiquo provides your business with a unified, flexible, self-service hybrid cloud platform that manages, controls and automates the delivery of resources and services, managed and metered consistently no matter what underlying infrastructure you choose.

Inherent Security

Abiquo’s powerful, role based access control scope integrates with your existing Active Directory or other LDAP compliant services and is developed around the Spring Security Framework. Over 50 privileges which can be grouped into defined roles and scopes which determine the areas that a role can control over your cloud resource. System-wide controls allow you to enable or disable features as you see fit, enabling you to build a differentiated service which meets your customers’ needs.

Powerful API

The Abiquo API provides full control of all Abiquo functions. This means you can perform every function, from user and security control, to provisioning new VMs, to gathering information on any system element through the API – all controlled by the same privilege, roles and scopes security model. An example would be to integrate your order management system to automatically create Enterprises, Users and a Virtual Datacenter for a new customer, or to update capacity limits when a customer increases their order size.

Develop hybrid cloud services

Build a unified catalogue of application blueprints and image templates and Abiquo converts between them on the fly, and lets you move between different datacenters and up to public clouds and OpenStack. Allow your customers to easily consume your service in a controlled, simple way. Drag-and-drop creation of new VMs and complete applications reduces the need for training and gets your sales team and your customers started in minutes. Simplify your configuration management through powerful integration with Chef, cloud-init and guest customization. Build your own SaaS marketplace, appliances and service templates or add value to public cloud templates and set pricing levels across Public and Private clouds, applications and services and other resources within your hybrid cloud.

Control you need

Define who can access the system, what functions they can see and control, and with which tenants and physical infrastructure they can interact.Over 50 privileges which can be grouped into defined roles and scopes which determine the areas that a role can control over your cloud resource. System-wide controls allow you to enable or disable features as you see fit, enabling you to build a differentiated service which meets your customers’ needs.Abiquo’s Business process management encompasses both workflow and policy rules controls across cloud tenants, user or your own groups within your business. Controls such as allocation limits, dedicated resources, infrastructure overbooking, configuration management and service scopes can be defined, enabling your business to define and create a tiered approach to service delivery.

Ian Finlay CEO of Abiquo

Ian Finlay is CEO at Abiquo, leading the company to deliver value to customers and shareholders. Ian brings unique insight to Abiquo having implemented the software whilst at Claranet, where he held the role of Chief Information Officer, Claranet Group – Western Europe’s largest independent Managed services provider. Prior to joining Claranet, Ian was CTO of ControlCircle, leading a team of 50 to design, develop, deliver and support a range of networking and managed hosting services and maintaining data centre facilities across Europe and in Singapore. Before that, he held the position of Vice President of IT and Business Systems at Interoute Communications, where he led a worldwide organization of more than 60 staff to drive business agility, productivity and customer service through innovative technology solutions focused on business priorities.