Qlusters, a provider of open source data center provisioning and management software for both physical and virtual environments, recently announced the availability of openQRM Pro. The offering allows users to request hardware and software resources via a Web portal and then automates the approval process, provisioning and monitoring of the resources maintaining detailed reporting along the way and de-provisioni Qlusters, a provider of open source data center provisioning and management software for both physical and virtual environments, recently announced the availability of openQRM Pro.The offering allows users to request hardware and software resources via a Web portal and then automates the approval process, provisioning and monitoring of the resources maintaining detailed reporting along the way and de-provisioning the resources once they are no longer needed by the user. openQRM Pro also supports complex network topologies including those with virtual LANs, multiple storage islands and virtualization technologies such as VMware and Xen. The solution provides integration with LDAP servers, allowing IT Administrators to take advantage of existing user management and role-based security. “Provisioning a new server in the enterprise can take from two weeks to several months, adversely effecting the IT department’s internal SLAs and often leading to resources that are under utilized and difficult to re-provision,” said Ofer Shoshan, founder and CEO of Qlusters. “openQRM Pro gives enterprise IT departments the tools they need to automate the entire requisitioning and provisioning process including integrating their existing LDAP systems to authenticate users and create audit trails vital to keeping the overall organization compliant with regulatory standards such as Sarbanes-Oxley.” Where traditional enterprises can take several weeks to months to provision a single new server, openQRM Pro simplifies the process and makes it possible to manage hundreds of servers, routers and storage devices from one common interface. As a result, overworked IT professionals can automate user requests for systems and services from beginning to end. Features include: Policy driven resource allocation LDAP integration (authentication through LDAP server) Detailed audit trails of resource request and usage Diskless server support Automatic, policy-based de-provisioning of resources “IT managers need a way to streamline the requisitioning and provisioning of disparate server, storage and router devices using one common platform,” said Andi Mann, a senior analyst with Enterprise Management Associates. “openQRM Pro will fill that need. It automates the entire management process and supports a wide range of virtualization technologies, network topologies and operating systems from a common interface. I find openQRM Pro to be delightfully disruptive and data center managers should consider evaluating it.” The product has an open plug-in architecture that enables easy integration with existing data center applications such as the monitoring solution offered with Nagios. Qlusters also offers its advanced Transparent Application Migration (TAM) product, which enables live migration of applications from physical to physical, virtual to physical, physical to virtual, and virtual to virtual. You can learn more about the company and its products by visiting their Web site. Software Development