NephOS IaaS Cloud Software for Licensing
Why NephoScale?
The answer is NephOS, which is at the core of the NephoScale end-to-end cloud solution. NephOS is a complete end-to-end cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) software stack that is available in the form of NephoScale’s on-demand public cloud services platform, or as licensed software for on-premise use by service providers, enterprises, or for customized OEM applications. Service Providers and enterprises can operate NephOS on a global scale across multiple cloud locations to provide users with a self-service on-demand multi-site “public cloud like” experience. Whether it be for public, private, or hybrid clouds – NephOS is the one software stack for all cloud types.
What is NephOS?
NephOS is truly an end-to-end turnkey cloud software solution that includes inventory management, billing, ticketing, both virtual and bare metal on-demand provisioning, scalable object-based and block storage, software-defined-networking (SDN) technology, and a cloud automation and orchestration template system. NephoScale NephOS enables companies to have the ultimate hybrid cloud environment with an integrated single-pane view for self-provisioning and management of on-premise and off-premise, virtual and bare metal, public and private clouds.
Enterprise’s and Systems Integrators need Hybrid Cloud with the added flexibility and power of Hybrid Compute technology:
Imagine you are an enterprise IT network engineer or systems administrator, with too many disparate public and private cloud systems to manage with too many types of equipment to integrate. Now, you are experiencing compatibility, security, resource tracking, agility, and budget problems on a large scale. Solving this problem is what we at NephoScale consider to be achieving the “holy grail of cloud computing”, and today we are solving it.
Have us install NephOS cloud platform software on-premise at your location, on your equipment, and enjoy seamless on-premise/off-premise cloud integration in the form of a single-pane view web portal and a common API. Manage any NephoScale public cloud data center location, and your own on-premise location, all within a single-pane view web portal or REST API, for a true Hybrid Cloud experience.
With NephoScale’s Hybrid ComputeTM cloud solution you get dramatically better performance and value than with the over-hyped 100% virtualized cloud environments being pushed on enterprises today. Share the same web portal dashboard, same API, same low latency private network, and same base server images across both virtual and dedicated servers.
With access to on-demand dedicated servers enterprises can bring on-demand cloud agility to areas of their business that have not been able to enjoy such levels of efficiency to-date. Bare metal dedicated servers are important computing assets to have on-demand access to through an API, and they are absolutely necessary for properly supporting private clouds, large databases, analytics and data processing projects, legacy software applications, tight security restrictions, and rigorous compliance requirements.
NephOS is a proven enterprise grade cloud management software system that provides extreme levels of reliability and performance. NephOS was designed to be a trusted business solution that is both robust and secure, and was developed by engineers and data center operators with real-world experience delivering large scale infrastructure in hosting environments. NephOS is a highly complex software stack with advanced functionality, yet it is also stable, highly customizable, and simple to deploy and operate. End users can get started with the intuitive user interface and be deploying server, storage, and networking infrastructure within minutes.
The NephOS Asset Management System automatically ingests and integrates new x86 based network, compute, and storage hardware, which makes modifying or scaling your cloud easier than ever before. In addition to more ease-of-use, the Asset Management System eliminates the need for spreadsheets and barcode scanners for tracking assets in the data center. Th NephoScale Asset Management System makes NephOS a complete software-defined-datacenter solution.
Service Providers and Technology Companies need NephoScale’s NephOS.
NephoScale is an ideal partner for companies integrating or providing cloud services, and technology companies that want to offer their software or hardware “as-a-service”. They need the unique advantage NephOS delivers, its ability to ingest, integrate, and automate virtually any network, compute, or storage hardware to meet almost any compatibility requirement.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs), OEM Resellers, and Technology companies often have equipment that they resell or manufacture that they must integrate with to satisfy all the stakeholders’ needs in any particular deal. If the equipment they resell, or make, can be sold as-a-service then they now have a way to allow their customers to consume the equipment on-demand as-a-cloud-service.
For the same reason they need the tight hardware integration capabilities of NephOS – Resellers, MSPs, and Technology companies need both Hybrid Cloud and Hybrid Compute resulting in seamless integration across dedicated and virtual servers, on-premise and off-premise locations, public and private clouds, all managed from a single easy-to-use web interface or REST API. Provision Linux or Windows virtual servers in minutes, provision a “cloud-in-a-cloud” using on-demand bare metal server clusters to create on-premise or off-premise private clouds, use any cloud management system of your choice (e.g. VMware, OpenStack, CloudStack, Eucalyptus, Cloud Foundry, etc.), and access a common server image library or list of CloudScript deployment templates to dramatically increase the efficiency of initial deployments and ongoing managed operations.
The Perfect Hybrid Cloud Platform for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)

What Sets NephOS Apart?
NephOS can be utilized to create customized automated cloud solutions that include most any selection of network, compute, and storage hardware. NephoScale can integrate the following technologies and appliances as needed with NephOS: Ethernet switches, load balancers, firewalls, DDos appliances, servers, NASs, SANs, GPUs, PCI Flash, FPGAs, DSPs, etc.
Commodity Hardware:
While NephOS can be seamlessly integrated with many different custom hardware types, it is also designed to leverage open source software and commodity hardware to continually drive costs down for network, compute, and storage.
Hybrid Cloud Flexibility:
The power of the NephOS platform lies in its ability to provide a single-pane view for on-demand provisioning and management of on-premise and off-premise, virtual and dedicated, public and private clouds, on any cloud management system.
Hybrid Cloud:
Tightly integrate on-premise and off-premise public and private clouds into a single easy-to-use interface creating a seamless on-premise/off-premise environment. Provision virtual servers on-demand in minutes. You can even run hosted “private cloud-in-a-public cloud” using on-demand bare metal server clusters to create on-premise or off-premise private clouds using any cloud management system of your choice (e.g. VMware, OpenStack, CloudStack, Eucalyptus, Cloud Foundry, etc.)
Not only Hybrid Cloud, but also Hybrid Compute:
Get better performance than with 100% virtualized cloud environments, with NephoScale’s Hybrid Compute. Combine on-demand bare metal dedicated servers and virtual servers on the same secure low latency broadcast domain. Share the same API, network broadcast domain, and base server images across both virtual and dedicated servers.
Elastic Networking:
NephoScale’s 10/40 Gbps software-defined networking (SDN) technology provides an API programmable network overlay allowing for the seamless single-pane view integration of both virtual and bare metal dedicated servers on the same low latency layer 2 broadcast domain. Elastic Networking also allows for the insertion of myriad custom network services across the NephOS cloud platform and enables the extension of layer 2 broadcast domains across multiple physical data center locations.
Virtual Private Rack:
- Bring your own IP addresses to announce in your own hosted public or private cloud environment.
- Bring your own custom appliance for DDoS, firewall security, server load balancing, or custom storage into your own hosted public or private cloud environment.
- Reduce your cost of IT support staff and get added peace of mind, with Managed Services.
NephOS – A Licensed End-to-end IaaS Cloud Software Stack.
Benefits
- High performance architecture
- Fast deployment and seamless upgrades
- Security and reliability
- Increased operational efficiency
- Agile IT
- Rapid innovation
- Limitless storage capacity
- Achieve 99.95% SLAs
- Lowered capital costs
- Reduced time to market
- Windows and Linux support
- KVM and ESXi hypervisor support
- Remote management
- Dispruptive cost model for software and hardware
Features
- Public, Private, and Hybrid cloud deployment options
- Hybrid Compute: virtual and dedicated servers
- Integrated SDN/NFV networking
- Zero touch 24 hr provisioning and automated upgrade tools
- Scalable to millions of transactions/day
- Fully compatible with existing systems
- Self-service on-demand provisioning 24/7
- Capable of storing petabytes of data
- Highly redundant platform design
- Multi-tenancy supports unlimited accounts
- Integrated automation and build system
- VNC console access
- Flexible billing and chargeback options
Technical Specifications
Management & Administration
- Enables self-provisioning
- GUI control over all cloud resources
- Cloud Storage Explorer
- VNC console access to virtual servers
- Help desk support
- Staff area for ticket, signup, billing, and inventory
APIs & SDKs
- REST API for all supported OpenStack projects
- Common client libraries is many languages
CLIs
- Common CLI clients for all supported OpenStack projects for staff and customers
White labeling
- White-label and re-branding support
- Payment gateway integration using merchant account
Identity and Access Management
Hierarchical Protection Domains
- Separate roles for customers and staff
- Staff users have supervisor privilege over customer accounts
Image Management
- Windows and Linux support
- Image permissions
- Image publishing
- Private custom images
Server Management
- Full root/administrator access
- Start/stop/reboot
- VNC console for virtual servers
- High Performance Computing
- Support for 10 Gbps NICs
- Support for GPU or PCIe flash storage options on dedicated bare metal servers
Storage
Direct Attached Storage
- Persistent local storage for both virtual and dedicated servers preserves data during reboots
- RAID redundancy for both virtual and dedicated bare metal servers
- SATA or SSD storage options
- Predictable IOPS performance
Cloud Storage
- Highly available and fault-tolerant
- Based on OpenStack Object Storage
- REST API compatibility with OpenStack Object Storage and AWS S3
- Container synchronization across geographic regions
- Object caching, versioning, and expiration
- Container public access, metadata, and web indexes
- Large object support and multipart upload
- HTTP Range requests (HTML5 video streaming)
- Cross-site HTTP requests (aka CORS)
- Cross-domain policy file (Flash, Java, and Silverlight compatibility with REST API)
Networking
IP Addressing
- Persistent IP addresses and Internet connectivity
- IPv4 support
- Deploy servers with public/private IPs, private only IPs, or no IPs for DHCP
Support
Help Desk
- Support tickets
- Ticket queues
- Support teams
Notifications
- System Maintenance
- Release Notes
Billing
Pricing, Payments, and Invoicing
- Customize SKUs and pricing
- Standard pricing override support
- One-time fee support
- Software license and upgrade tracking
- Multi-tier credit card and payment gateway capability
- Semi-monthly, monthly, and annual membership invoicing based on hourly or monthly usage
- metering
Data Center
Zones & Racks
- Deploy resources across multiple availability zones
- Group physical resources into performance tiers
- Isolate system and network resources to meet single tenancy requirements
Inventory Management
Automated Hardware Ingestion
- Top-of-rack access switches/ports added to network inventory
- Network scanner supports Cisco IOS, Dell FTOS, and Cumulus operating systems
- Compute nodes and dedicated bare metal servers added to inventory on first boot
- Multi-layer security and access controls
- Account level ownership of resources
Authentication Methods
- Username/password
- Security token
- Two-factor authentication
- Enterprise backend support such as LDAP/AD
Role-Based Access Control
- Access control lists
- User roles
Resource Audit Trail
- Resource log of provisioning requests
- Audit trail of resource creation by user, run time, create time, and status
Keys
- SSH key or username/password configured on server first boot
Compute
Virtual and Dedicated Server Support
- L2 and L3 private and public networking
- Same base images can deploy to both virtual and dedicated bare metal servers
- Choice of KVM and ESXi hypervisors for virtual servers
- Dedicated bare metal servers provisioned on-demand using GUI, API, & OpenStack Heat TemplatesoudScript
Software Defined Networking
- On-demand public and private networks
- Sub-millisecond latency within the data center
- 1, 10 and 40 Gbps network connectivity
- SDN network overlay traffic isolation
- Scale out network topology eliminates SDN router capacity planning
- SDN routers are optimized for maximum traffic flows
- Switch vendor neutrality due to network overlay packet encapsulation
- VLANs, LACP, LLDP, BGP, and OSPF support
- L2/L3 networking for both virtual and dedicated servers
- Unicast, broadcast, and multicast support
- Network service chaining support for automatic insertion of firewalls, load balancers,packet sniffing devices, etc.
High Availability
- High availability and failover routing architecture
- Redundant top-of-rack switches and cloud controllers for N+1 redundancy
- Redundant virtual OpenStack Neutron routers for N+N redundancy
- Compute nodes maintain redundant connections to top-of-rack switches
- Management cluster supports N+1 redundancy
- Deploy resources to different geographic regions
Deployments & Automation
Orchestration
- OpenStack Heat Templates – YAML based
- Deploy distributed applications with a single click
- Idempotent operations for all template changes of all cloud resource types
- Dependency based programming
- Parallel processing of resource provisioning requests
- Code enveloping of Chef, Puppet, or Ansible
- Distributed state machine runs across Heat engine and server agents
Scripts
- Scripts run any type of interpreted code in a server agent on server first boot using cloud-init
- Script output is available in server log
Asset Management
- Physical asset tracking of data centers, switches/modules, servers, CPUs, disks, RAID, memory, and network ports
- Virtual asset tracking of CIDRs, subnets, IP addresses, VLANs, security rules, and zones
Reports
Dashboards
- Track numbers of accounts and resources deployed
- Track CPU and I/O utilization of compute nodes
Scoreboards
- See system metrics for data centers, cloud storage, images, virtual servers, dedicated bare metal servers, and accounts
Metering
Usage
- Track virtual and dedicated server usage on data transfer, bandwidth, and instance size
Quotas
- Support for manual approval of dedicated bare metal server provisioning requests
- Enforce virtual and dedicated server quotas on the number of instances and total memory deployed
Release Management
Deployments
- Automated build and packaging system
- Zero-touch software provisioning system
- Automated upgrade release without any impact to customer services
NephOS and OpenStack: the best of both worlds
While OpenStack is an important open source project that is gaining momentum as a component framework for building clouds, it is not a cohesive product that is easy to deploy or simple to operate. NephOS and OpenStack together provide superior performance, greater security and reliability, and significant cost reductions.
- L2 and L3 private and public networking
- Same base images can deploy to both virtual and dedicated bare metal servers
- Dedicated bare metal servers provisioned on-demand using GUI and API
Billing & Support
- Customized SKUs and pricing, pricing overrides, one-time fees, multi-tier credit cards and payment gateway integration
- Semi-monthly, monthly, and annual membership invoicing based on hourly or monthly usage metering
- Support help desk and customer notifications
- Automated ingestion into inventory of hardware components such as servers, switches, and ports
- Asset tracking of physical and virtual server inventory in the data center
Auto Installer
- Turn-key self-service installation within hours
- Zero touch provisioning of switches, cloud controllers, and database nodes
Release Management
- Build and packaging system for seamless upgrades
- Automated upgrade release without any impact to customer services
Networking
- High availability with failover network architecture
- Horizontal scale out network topology eliminates SDN router capacity planning
- SDN routers are optimized for maximum traffic flows
NephOS Certification Process Of OpenStack Capabilities
NephOS Certified OpenStack Projects
- OpenStack Telemetry (code-named Ceilometer)
- OpenStack Block Storage (code-named Cinder)
- OpenStack Rating-as-a-Service (code-named Cloud Kitty)
- OpenStack DNS (code-named Designate)
- OpenStack Images (code-named Glance)
- OpenStack Orchestration (code-named Heat)
- OpenStack UI Portal (code-named Horizon)
- OpenStack Identity (code-named Keystone)
- OpenStack Compute (code-named Nova)
- OpenStack Networking (code-named Neutron)
- OpenStack Object Storage (code-named Swift)