Virtustream delivers cloud software to run private, public and hybrid enterprise-class clouds

Virtustream this week announced xStream 2.0, a private cloud solution designed to provide secure, high-performance, enterprise-class cloud infrastructure services across private, virtual private, public, and hybrid implementations.

Available as software, stand-alone appliance, and as a managed service, xStream helps foster better management of mission-critical applications on clouds, the venture-backed, three-year-old company said. Those deploying may select a tailored mix of on-site private cloud, combined with off-site public and virtual private clouds.

Now in beta and becoming generally available in August, xStream 2.0:

• Allows enterprises to control their IT infrastructure as a single cloud, combining on-site private clouds, offsite virtual private/public clouds, and managed cloud services -- providing a tailored hybrid cloud to suit each enterprise’s requirements;

  Until now, there have been no cloud solutions that gave customers the confidence to move both legacy and web-scale applications to the cloud.

• Provides multi-layered logical, physical cloud security, and in-depth threat monitoring and includes silicon-level authentication with Intel TxT, to meet security and compliance standards;
  
• Uses patented Virtustream µVM (Micro VM) technology to optimally and dynamically combine compute, memory, network and storage to deliver application performance assured by commercial service-level agreements (SLAs), with cloud efficiency; and,
  
• Allows consumption-based pricing/chargeback, so enterprises pay only for resources that they actually use, each five minutes.

Additionally, xStream provides the versatility to allow enterprises to run both mission-critical legacy and web-scale applications in cloud configurations, gaining cloud benefits without rewriting existing applications. µVM technology delivers multi-tenant virtualization benefits, said Simon Aspinall, CMO at Virtustream. And xStream runs as a macro hypervisor/cloud director that supports leading virtualization hypervisors and most major hardware.

Mixing applications

“Enterprises run extremely complex IT environments that mix many legacy and web-scale applications. Until now, there have been no cloud solutions that gave customers the confidence to move both legacy and web-scale applications to the cloud,” said Rodney Rogers, Chairman and CEO, Virtustream. “Virtustream’s xStream software fills that gap by providing them with an enterprise-class cloud solution – for private clouds, virtual private/public clouds and a combination of both in a hybrid model.”

xStream is available in three editions:

• Private Cloud -- allows enterprises to run private clouds in existing data centers
  
• Public Cloud -- for service providers to offer enterprise cloud services to their customers
  
• Virtual Private Cloud -- a full set of managed cloud services for enterprises from Virtustream’s cloud

Virtustream, recently closed a series funding round with Columbia Capital, Intel Capital, Noro‐Moseley Partners, QuestMark Partners, TDF and Top Tier Capital Partners (TTCP) bringing total equity raised to $75 million.

While xStream is initially targeting enterprises and governments, I think the solution makes a lot of sense, too, for small- to medium-sized businesses that want to get out of the IT infrastructure business and need a flexible way to do so across a variety cloud models. That means this makes sense for migration activities. Being able to mix and match hypervisors also helps with moving to more than one cloud provider or platform.

I can also see where enterprises that are seeking a cloud support model for their big data architectures would do well to evaluate xStream as a way to move to cloud in increments, with later choices on where to deploy open. What's more, xStream appears well-suited for the auto-scale, massive network and massive storage demands of big data uses. Big data as a service, anyone?

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