SearchNetworking has an article about cheap, and even free, internal cloud computing. Check out the tools that are available. OpenFiler is recommended for storage allocation and consolidation:
Freeware: The answer to internal cloud computing?
If IT does not have the tools it needs, it can fill many gaps with free software, either permanently or simply as a starting point while budgets are tight. It’s important that IT keep its processes modular so that using a freeware tool to replace a manual process, or a commercial tool to replace a free one, will be straightforward. Beyond the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl), free packages can fill many gaps in a data center looking to gear up for more cloud-like operations. Examples include:
- Monitoring tools such as Hyperic, Zenoss, OpenNMS, Cacti, and Nagios can provide visibility into server and storage utilization. SolarWinds supplies a free VM Monitor tool.
- KVM, Xen, and VMware ESX are free hypervisors; Citrix XenServer is a multi-machine resource pool manager; Microsoft HyperV is cheap or already included in many organizations’ MS licenses.
- jManage handles Java applications in application servers.
- FastSCP helps move data between physical and virtual environments.
- OpenFiler and Veritas Storage Foundation Basic allow consolidation and allocation of storage. StarWinds provides a free version of its iSCSI Target software.
- Eucalyptus is a cloud-management tool that ties together other systems to provide automation.
Source: searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au (12/08/2009)
