Quali CloudShell 8.0 Release Announces Support for Microsoft Azure and OpenStack Cloud Platforms

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Quali, the leader in cloud sandbox software for cloud and DevOps automation, today announced the general availability of CloudShell 8.0 with second-generation shells which are easier to build and maintain, along with new support for Microsoft Azure and OpenStack based cloud platforms.

Microsoft Azure is continuing to gain traction as a public cloud platform with a rich developer ecosystem. With the upcoming general availability of Microsoft Azure Stack, it is increasingly becoming attractive for hybrid cloud deployments.

OpenStack adoption in enterprises is also increasingly successful as a private cloud platform with revenues growing at 35% CAGR, according to 451 Research. Adoption of OpenStack is increasing among organizations with over 1,000 employees both with on-premise and hosted OpenStack deployments. The 451 Research team predicts a growing number of use-cases across enterprise and service provider deployments. These include SDN, NFV, mobile and IoT, in addition to traditional use-cases in big data, DevOps, PaaS and serving line-of-business requirements.

Recognizing this trend, Quali is expanding on its current support of cloud sandboxes over AWS and VMware vCenter to now include additional public and private clouds, becoming the industry's only vendor to support cloud sandboxes with "one-click" deployment paths for dev/test applications. The multi-cloud capabilities complement the unique "hybrid cloud sandbox" capabilities that Quali announced last year.

The Quali CloudShell platform automates and accelerates the cloud and DevOps lifecycle by providing dev, test, QA and compliance teams with authentic personal replicas of their production environments within software sandboxes. Taking a blueprint driven approach, Quali can drive standardization and scale workflows. It is the only solution in the market that can model, orchestrate and deploy "full-stack" environments including physical or virtual infrastructure, data, applications, performance and security tools and services in a cloud-agnostic manner.  

The new version provides more out-of-the-box shell configurations to enable faster time to value. CloudShell 8.0 includes added support for application configuration management through use of a custom script or Ansible playbook. In addition, new virtualization capabilities allow regular users to edit some app details directly within blueprints. Users can also access a drop-down selection of cloud providers when building apps, and simple selection of clouds when dragging an app to a blueprint.

Quali's latest second-generation shells are controlled through the CloudShell web portal, which for the first time allows users to centrally manage, update and remove any unused shells. The new version also offers enhanced Single Sign On (SSO) support, enabling more SAML security features and integration with more identity providers.

Other enhancements to CloudShell 8.0 include increased control of blueprint max reservation time, advanced search improvements and new table views.

"We are thrilled to continue expansion of our hybrid and multi-cloud sandbox offering. Enterprises want choice, but they also want simplicity. With the added  support for Microsoft Azure and OpenStack platforms in Release 8.0, it gives our customers significant flexibility and choice of the best cloud composition that works for them." said Lior Koriat, CEO of Quali. "Offering consistency and portability of standardized blueprints across private and hybrid deployments can help enterprises simplify and accelerate their IT modernization initiatives"

Customer, Analyst and Partner Supporting Quotes
"Our dev/test teams are the backbone of Fujitsu's engineering organization," said Jim Wharton, Senior Manager System Verification Test at Fujitsu. "CloudShell is a key component to help us increase efficiency of our labs for our dev/test teams. I am looking forward to upgrade to the latest version of CloudShell 8.0, allowing our top innovators to improve their productivity and efficiency with the lab-as-a-service offering."

"Increasingly the ability to have consistent solution offerings across a multi-cloud landscape will become important to enterprise customers, offering them flexibility and choice," said William Fellows, VP Research and Founder at The 451 Group. "Quali's direction of offering cloud sandboxes across public, private and hybrid clouds is aligned with enterprise IT requirements. We see demand for support for both Microsoft Azure and OpenStack deployments."

"OpenStack is continuing to gain traction as the leading open source private cloud platform with strong community involvement," said Rob Powers, System Developer at General DataTech. "We really appreciate that Quali is now releasing full support of OpenStack which is our private cloud of choice for sandboxes in my organization and we look forward to the Quali CloudShell 8.0 GA upgrade."

"We continue to see an increasing demand for Microsoft Azure among our customers as a public cloud offering," said Eti Fakiri, CEO of Cloud Valley. "This growth will continue to increase, particularly with the recent enhancements to Azure stack for hybrid cloud deployments. In our automation and as-a-service practices, we view Quali's new CloudShell 8.0 release as a strategic platform for customers considering Microsoft Azure and Azure stack deployment. Quali's cloud sandboxes can help them accelerate their deployments across private, hybrid and public cloud options and serve as a stepping stone to accelerate and de-risk the cloud transition."

Webinar:
"What's New With CloudShell 8.0 – An Engineer's Perspective" May 3^rd, 10 a.m. PST

Register here

Additional Resources:

• Infographic: Top 10 Barriers to DevOps
• Read our Blog on our Survey Results: How to grease the skids for DevOps planning in 2017
• EMA whitepaper: http://info.quali.com/ema-accelerate-cloud-transformation-lower-cloud-opex-and-increase-business-agility-through-blueprint-driven-cloud-automation  
• Take the 2017 Annual DevOps and Cloud Survey for a chance to win $100 Amazon gift card 

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About Quali
Quali is the leading provider of enterprise software for Cloud and DevOps automation. With its flagship CloudShell platform, Quali's blueprint based approach and Cloud Sandboxes gives developers, testers and architects access to replicas of complex production environments that work on private, public and hybrid cloud deployments. The Global 100 and beyond, including cloud providers, service providers and enterprises, depend on Quali to help them deliver their products and services to market faster with better quality and reduced costs.

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