OPTIMIS (Optimized Infrastructure Services) is an open source cloud computing research project that has recently published the final release of its toolkit (v3.0). The OPTIMIS toolkit is now available in the OpenNebula Ecosystem and can be downloaded from optimistoolkit.com. The code is also available on GitHub and in a publicly available SVN repository. The OPTIMIS project kicked off in 2010, co-financed by the EU’s FP7 framework program. The project is led by IT services company Atos and includes Umea Universitet, 451 Research, Universität Stuttgart (HLRS), ICCS, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), SAP, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, University of Leeds, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Flexiant, BT Group, City UNiversity London and Arsys.

The primary goal of the OPTIMIS project was to optimize cloud infrastructure services by producing an architectural framework and a development toolkit covering the full cloud service lifecycle (construction, deployment and operation). With its newly developed programming model, integrated development environment and deployment tools, OPTIMIS gives service providers the capability to easily orchestrate cloud services from scratch, run legacy apps on the cloud and make intelligent deployment decisions based on their – or their customers’ – preferences regarding trust, risk, eco-efficiency and cost (TREC). It supports end-to-end security and compliance with data protection and green legislation. The toolkit also allows for developing once and deploying services across different types of cloud environments – private, hybrid, federated or multi-clouds. The OPTIMIS operation tools are intended to simplify and automate the management of infrastructure, and aim to improve resource utilization efficiency.

OPTIMIS supports ‘best execution venue’ strategies. It is fundamentally a cloud-enabling technology that ultimately allows users to schedule and automate the delivery of workloads to the most suitable venues (internal or external) based on policies such as TREC. The OPTIMIS software tools are deployed in the datacenter, and are a complement to cloud management and orchestration platforms.

Most of the OPTIMIS components are open-source-based, primarily Apache, but not all of them. Joining the OpenNebula Ecosystem makes perfect sense for OPTIMIS.

Try out the toolkit and let the OPTIMIS team know what you think!