DreamHost Using Nicira to Speed its OpenStack Cloud

Networking startup Nicira said today that hosting provider DreamHost will deploy its Network Virtualization Platform (NVP) to accelerate service delivery in its OpenStack data center environments.

Nicira's software platform manages a network abstraction layer, which lets users create virtual networks that operate independently of the underlying physical network hardware.

“Nicira’s NVP software enables truly massive leaps in automation and efficiency,” said Carl Perry, Cloud Architect at DreamHost. “NVP decouples network services from hardware, providing unique flexibility for both DreamHost and our customers. By sidestepping the old network paradigm, DreamHost can rapidly build powerful features for our cloud.

"Network virtualization is a critical component necessary for architecting the next-generation public cloud services," Perry added. "Nicira’s plug-in technology, coupled with the open source Ceph and OpenStack software, is a technically sound recipe for offering our customers real infrastructure-as-a-service.”

DreamHost runs its shared hosting and VPS services on Dell hardware, and worked with DreamHost to deploy a cloud service based on Open Stack, the open source cloud computing platform. DreamHost used Dell's Crowbar, an OpenStack  installer that leverages the Chef management platform.  Dell has a case study on the deployment of the DreamHost cloud.

“DreamHost and Nicira demonstrate that NVP is the network for OpenStack. Together, we share a game-changing vision of public cloud for developers and enterprises alike,” said Alan Cohen, Vice President of Marketing at Nicira. “Combined with OpenStack Quantum, NVP delivers network-as-a-service: meaning total hardware independence, multi-tenant cloud scale, and enterprise security and networking capabilities, all on-demand.”