SEATTLE, WASH. – March 1, 2010 – Skytap Inc., the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions, today announced breakthrough network automation capabilities that simplify and accelerate the creation, migration and deployment of multi-tier enterprise applications in the cloud. These features empower IT organizations to create virtual data centers with advanced network topologies and enable functional users to deploy them with an easy-to-use, self-service interface. New capabilities include:
- Support for advanced, multi-tier network topologies
- Ability for users to deploy virtual data centers with multiple networks using Skytap’s self-service Web user interface
- Comprehensive network security and policy management using virtual routers
In the same way data center automation transformed physical data center management, Skytap’s network automation capabilities are transforming the way enterprise applications are deployed in the cloud.
“Network automation is an important capability for external clouds. It builds on approaches that have been shown to reduce costs in the physical data center,” said Rachel Chalmers, research director, infrastructure management at The 451 Group. “Each time a user waits in line for several weeks while the IT department configures complex networks, businesses lose time and money. In contrast, Skytap can deliver self-service provisioning in minutes.”
Enterprise applications require complex networking topologies such as clustering, fail-over, shared resources, and multiple subnets with firewalls and security controls. Today, IT organizations spend an enormous amount of money and time installing physical hardware, deploying software, managing network changes and applying security patches. Functional users are often frustrated with delays due to network provisioning, set-up, performance and scalability issues.
Skytap’s new network automation capabilities enable a transformative break from the status quo. With this release, Skytap enables IT organizations to move multi-tiered enterprise applications with clustering and fail-over networking capabilities into the cloud with point-and-click ease.
“As a leading provider of enterprise content management solutions, our global technical teams rely on Skytap to deliver hundreds of customer engagements each month,” said Neil Wilson, technical marketing manager at OpenText. “Skytap’s network automation capabilities will allow us to leverage Skytap for our most complex enterprise applications with high availability and performance requirements. These game-changing features are especially important as we grow our business with solutions that integrate with SAP, Oracle and Microsoft.”
Skytap allows IT organizations to create “ready to run” virtual data centers with advanced networking topologies, customizable security policies, and scalable computing capacity. Functional users can utilize the self-service Web interface to deploy those virtual data centers immediately. As application needs change, IT organizations can easily add or remove networks, change server and storage capacity, and rapidly adjust security and access policies. Skytap’s networking capabilities bring unprecedented power, scale, ease-of-use, time-to-value and cost efficiencies to cloud-based application deployments.
“Network automation has been a critical missing piece that has held back complex enterprise application deployments in the cloud,” said Sundar Raghavan, chief product and marketing officer at Skytap. “New capabilities in Skytap enable customers to easily move their applications to the cloud. Skytap users can create complex network topologies with a simple, easy-to-use interface, and further automate the deployment process with our APIs. Skytap is the ideal choice for businesses that require automated virtual data centers with customizable levels of security, availability and scalability.”
The following features in this release enable and simplify the deployment of complex enterprise applications in the cloud:
Advanced, Multi-Tier Network Topologies
- Create server machines with multiple network adapters; configure multiple networks in a virtual data center configuration
- Create server clusters, fail-over configurations and shared services to support highly available applications in the cloud
- Add virtual routers, firewalls and gateways to virtual data center configurations
Self-Service Virtual Data Center Deployment
- Define and deploy complex networks with Skytap’s Web interface and REST-based API
- Snapshot entire virtual data centers with advanced network topologies and share it with remote teams using a simple Web user interface
- Integrated role-based access to allow users to deploy virtual data center templates without requiring IT operational support for provisioning
Comprehensive Network Security and Policy Management
- Create hybrid clouds by connecting Skytap multi-network virtual data center configurations with existing in-house enterprise networks
- Configure and manage routing and networking policies with virtual networking appliances
- Customize application and network security policies including support for ‘de-militarized zones’ (DMZs)
