Google Cloud Platform Adds Hadoop Connector

Google adds a connector to make Hadoop easier on its Cloud Platform, Air France uses HP Cloud Service Automation to increase reliability and decrease cost on its infrastructure, and Egenera launches a new release of its Cloud Suite Platform.

Google adds Hadoop connector. Google has made it easier to run Hadoop on its Cloud Platform, by adding a Google Cloud Storage connector for Hadoop that lets the user focus on data processing logic instead of managing a cluster and file system. Google's self-described 'planet-scale' storage systems run on Google File System (GFS), the basis for Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). With the new Hadoop connector library Hadoop can now run directly against Google Cloud Storage, an object store built on Colossus, the latest storage system iteration. Benefits of doing this include compatibility, quick startup,  greater visibility and scalability, interoperability, performance, and lower costs.

HP helps Air France with physical and virtual environments. HP (HPQ) announced that Air France has automated and increased the reliability of its 1,500 Linux servers by deploying a private cloud solution based on HP Cloud Service Automation (CSA) software to accelerate deployment times for physical and virtual infrastructures. After a validation phase with HP Operations Orchestration and HP Server Automation software, which reduced the cost of infrastructure provisioning by 85 percent, Air France created a private cloud with HP CSA software and put the solution into production. In the space of 12 months, 90 percent of installation processes were automated. HP CSA’s self-service portal gives project managers secure access to installation services and automatic server provisioning, reducing delivery time and eliminating human error. “Since automating our installation processes, we have gone from around six days for installing a server cluster to one day and, instead of more than 24 hours, it now takes less than 15 minutes to install one virtual machine,” said Patrick Bourel, head of Open Systems, Air France. “This scalable platform will allow Air France to put in place monitoring and audit tools in order to achieve better quality of service.”

Egenera launches new Cloud suite release. Infrastructure and cloud management software provider Egenera announced a new release of Egenera Cloud Suite featuring enhanced workflow automation, simplified administration, and enhanced security through integration with Microsoft Active Directory. “As the growth of cloud services is being driven by user demand for faster access to computing resources, enterprises are relying on a broad set of applications, with differing capacity requirements, levels of availability and security,” said John Humphreys, VP of sales and marketing at Egenera. “Egenera is the only solution to provision physical, virtual and public cloud resources from one unified management framework, and is in high demand from service providers and enterprises alike.” New capabilities include support for Microsoft Hyper-V and Active Directory, expanded role-based administration, billing enhancements, expanded templating, and lease periods for services.