Dr. Dobb's | Skytab API for 'Hybrid' Cloud Computing

Skytab API for 'Hybrid' Cloud Computing

Transitions existing environments to the cloud

September 10, 2008
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/parallel/skytab-api-for-hybrid-cloud-computing/210600923

Skytap has announced the availability of an API that lets you blend its cloud-based Virtual Lab platform with your existing onsite IT infrastructure. Rather than using cloud resources in a silo, Skytap's Web services API and one-click VPN functionality allows organizations to create a "hybrid" IT model whereby cloud resources can be used as an extension of existing onsite IT environments.

"A common misconception people have about cloud computing is that it has to be an all or nothing decision," said Theresa Lanowitz, founder of analyst firm voke. "Skytap's API and advanced networking features allow companies to progressively adopt cloud resources without completely abandoning the business processes and applications they've already established in their onsite environment."

Unlike cloud computing offerings where applications must be specifically rewritten for the cloud, Skytap allows companies to run their existing applications, virtual machines and systems unchanged on industry-standard platforms. Skytap cloud infrastructure supports the leading hypervisors, including VMware, Citrix Xen and planned support for Microsoft Hyper-V, and operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux and Solaris.

"We're excited to release our API and advanced networking capabilities because it opens up a world of possibilities for our current and future customers," said Scott Roza, Skytap CEO. "We believe the model of "hybrid' cloud computing will be broadly adopted and has tremendous potential to improve IT's responsiveness to the business while increasing efficiencies and lowering cost."

Using a "hybrid" cloud computing model, organizations now have a way to realize the benefits of "cloud economics." Migrating high cost, dynamic environments, such as application development and QA, IT ops testing, training and demo environments, provides a low-risk adoption path to cloud computing. It also delivers the highest ROI as dynamic environments fluctuate dramatically and are often the most expensive to administer. In a hybrid model, companies can maintain production applications onsite while conducting all their testing in the cloud. This enables on-demand scaling of test environments as needed and eliminates the cost of underutilized hardware. This approach also allows organizations to benefit from the management and automation capabilities of a fully automated virtual lab solution, leading to huge productivity increases.

The API and advanced networking features that are now in Skytap Virtual Lab include:

A REST-based Web Service interface that enables cloud resources to be controlled programmatically
Public/Static IP addresses to provide seamless access to Skytap environments
One-click VPN for easy connection back to the onsite IT environments
Automated upload of existing virtual machines and software to run in Skytap Virtual Lab

Skytap Virtual Lab provides virtualized infrastructure, including hardware, storage and networking resources that can be accessed on demand. When combined with Skytap's virtual lab management application and the Skytap Library, a pre-populated virtual machine library which includes major operating systems, databases and other application software, customers get access to a complete virtual lab solution on demand.