Open-source Linux purveyor SUSE LLC has just whipped up a new OpenStack offering, called SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6, aimed at making private clouds both easy to adopt and enterprise-friendly, with no risk of vendor lock-in.

The latest version of SUSE’s OpenStack distribution is based on the stable OpenStack Liberty release, and offers a number of new features, including the introduction of support for Docker containers, which helps to make it significantly more than just a cloud platform.

Other new features include support for upgrading to newer versions of OpenStack without disrupting existing operations; broader virtualization support with new IBM z/VM compatibility; and support for Manila, OpenStack’s shared file system. Finally, SUSE is touting the “enhanced high availability” of its software, which is designed to support enterprise workloads that require an “absolutely” reliable platform.

The main selling point SUSE is pitching is “enterprise readiness”. The company cites one of its own recent studies, which found that most businesses would happily “use a cloud solution for business-critical workloads, and believe there are business advantages to implementing an open source private cloud.” However, SUSE’s study also found that enterprises are still worried about “installation challenges, possible vendor lock-in and a lack of OpenStack skills in the market.”

To address those concerns, SUSE said it’s added a number of non-disruptive capabilities to its platform, which will now be rolled out on a more “business-friendly” release schedule, with a longer support duration for each version. SUSE reckons that this will help to reduce the load on limited, skilled resources as it will mean less upgrades and minimal disruption to production environments.

It’s unlikely that SUSE’s OpenStack will allay all the CTO’s fears about open-source private clouds. For example, there’s still the massive cost associated with migrating legacy systems to the cloud. Meanwhile there are others who still believe that OpenStack remains an immature platform, what with its growing number and variety of components.

Still, SUSE’s introduction of more enterprise-friendly features and better support for OpenStack versions should help make it more attractive to those enterprises that are ready to make the leap to the cloud. Clearly, SUSE is hoping that some of the new features its added will be enough to help it reel a few more customers in, if nothing else.

Photo Credit: chiaralily via Compfight cc