Breaking from MesosCon: EMC announces pioneering open source initiative—libStorage. Promoting storage to a first-class citizen, libStorage provides a platform-agnostic framework that enables storage provisioning, orchestration and control across a rapidly changing open source and container-driven ecosystem.
Containers are hot and getting hotter—but they’re not without their challenges. Container and open source platforms are each addressing storage challenges independently and building a healthy ecosystem around storage is critical. As a result, sustainability is in question as additional methods of bringing storage into these platforms emerge. EMC has introduced libStorage to move the needle.
So why libStorage and why now?
To enable the highest level of choice for users, platforms have the opportunity to embrace an open and comprehensive storage orchestration framework. This drives the maturity of the ecosystem forward where customers have a reliable and supportable standardized method to get storage to containers and applications, while reducing the number of moving parts.
Today, capabilities and strengths differ in the container ecosystem—so users may have any combination of Cloud Foundry, Docker, Mesos and Kubernetes in their environments and expect to run different types of applications in each platform. libStorage defines a common framework and storage model to deliver resources to containers and consumers of containers—and ultimately, one common level of functionality to be exposed and supported through all container platforms.
So what does all this mean? EMC is making storage a first-class citizen by creating an ideal architecture that embeds libStorage client and server components to enable container runtimes to communicate directly with storage platforms. This design requires minimal operational dependencies and provides volume management for container runtimes, simplifying and automating a once complex and time-consuming task. This new architecture will allow every storage vendor to immediately become relevant in the container world. Pursuing the completely native libStorage route where the plumbing between container and storage platforms is invisible is possible by adopting libStorage in the control plane of storage platforms.
But don’t just take our word for it. Rancher Labs has the scoop on libStorage, and CEO and Co-Founder Sheng Liang had this to say: “As with any new technology, containers create new challenges for users even as they solve existing ones. libStorage solves one of the most critical issues of containers in the context of storage: communication—knocking down a major hurdle for users and enabling them to more efficiently extract more value, more quickly, from multiple container platforms.”
Furthering EMC’s commitment to open source, libStorage is the latest in a series of open source innovations led by EMC’s Community Onramp for Developer Enablement, known as EMC {code}. EMC {code} was founded in 2014 with the mission to support 3rd Platform development and open source communities through contributions to critical open source projects, engagement and technical solution leadership. The team is dedicated to assuring continued relevance and affinity for EMC’s software and physical infrastructure products.
EMC {code} is showcasing libStorage at MesosCon, booth # P1 – stop by and check it out. libStorage is available on GitHub: https://github.com/emccode/libstorage
