RightScale is a gateway tool that allows users to use a single console to spin up storage and computing resources from multiple providers. The company has announced that it is planning to integrate an advanced networking control feature.
Carl Brooks of the 451 Research Group indicated that the network manager is a natural advancement of the company’s product strategy. It can also be termed as a significant advancement in easing the process of creating cloud computing features. He indicated that network configuration needs an automation since it has been a largely hand driven process.
Brooks indicated that networking is extremely hard compared to virtual machines that can be scaled up or down, stopped or paused. Many providers give public or private IPs to customers and a VPN tunnel. However, the process of deployment and management varies from one provider to the other. Some providers make use of APIs while others need a manual setup. Brooks indicated that a system that can sit between this complexity and the customers is very much welcomed.
RightScale says that the network manager will provide an abstraction of network constructs across the clouds. It will provide a common user interface to access the different resources for Amazon, Google, Microsoft and CloudStack.
RightScale has indicated that the initial release will be for Amazon web servers, which has the largest market share in cloud provision. The company is hoping to add the network manager in other providers.
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