Mirantis Announces New SaaS Portal to Configure On-Premise Cloud Environments in Minutes

An online tool will enable IT operators to experience Mirantis Cloud Platform’s flexible, model-driven approach to cloud lifecycle management

Open Infrastructure Summit, Denver, CO — April 29, 2019 – Today, Mirantis announced a web-based SaaS application that enables users to quickly deploy a compact cloud and experience the flexibility and agility of Infrastructure-as-Code. Available next month, Model Designer for Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP) helps infrastructure operators build customized, curated, exclusively open source configurations for on-premise cloud environments.

Mirantis Cloud Platform employs a unique approach to deployment and management of on-premise cloud environments, where the entire cloud configuration is expressed as code in a highly granular fashion. That configuration is then provided as input to a deployment tool, called DriveTrain, which validates the configuration data and deploys the cloud accordingly.

“Our customers love the flexibility and granular infrastructure control that MCP offers, but for many, the learning curve associated with building an initial cluster model using YAML files is simply too steep,” said Boris Renski, co-founder and CMO, Mirantis. “Model Designer provides the necessary guardrails, making it easier for anyone to get started with MCP, without compromising on the flexibility they may require down the road as they expand their cloud footprint.”

Model Designer will enable users to specify the degree of configurability they require for their on-premise cloud use case. With the basic configurability level (humorously called “I am too young to die”), Model Designer automatically pre-populates most of the cluster settings to default, pre-tested values. While on the other side of the spectrum, Model Designer will offer the “Ultraviolence” configurability setting, where users are able to tweak virtually every aspect of their on-premises cloud. The resulting configuration models, generated by the Model Designer, are then fed into DriveTrain, which combines them with security tested OpenStack and Kubernetes software binary packages to deploy or update end user cloud environment.

“A declarative approach to operating hybrid cloud infrastructure is a pattern that the community contributed to significantly with projects like Airship,” said Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation. “Model Designer aims to make declarative infrastructure operations accessible to the masses, and it’s a positive sign to see vendors driving adoption for design concepts pioneered by open source communities.”