As a true hybrid cloud system, Abiquo can manage both private and public clouds through a single pane of glass. In private datacenters, Abiquo allows you to Manage the Complexity of compute , networking and storage resources. Those resources can exist in multiple private datacenters, with each datacenter forming a logical unit, so that the use of those resources can also be controlled by Abiquo’s policy. Abiquo can manage datacenters with supported hypervisors and container servers, and public cloud regions with public cloud resources such as Amazon EC2 and VPC, and Azure Cloud Services.
Cloud resources are allocated to Abiquo enterprises. Enterprises are the basic cloud tenant. For a private cloud, enterprises will be the business units, project teams or cost centers, or for service providers the enterprise will simply be a customer or reseller.
Abiquo offers customers the building blocks for a unique cloud service, with functionality delivered through the Abiquo client UI and integration points.
...
Abiquo policy can also be applied to VDCs through the use of resource allocation limits (controlling compute, network and storage resources) and by controlling which users within an enterprise can use a particular VDC. Networking and storage resources can also be defined by the Enterprise Administrator at the VDC level and made available to the cloud consumer.
Within the VDC the cloud consumers take advantage of self-service by creating their own virtual appliances (vApps). Virtual appliances are simply containers that allow the consumer to create an application or service consisting of one or more virtual machines (VMs). The resources the consumer can use are controlled by the administrator using policy and what the consumer is able to do with those resources is controlled through granular privileges that can be grouped into roles. For example, privileges may determine whether the consumer can change CPU and memory resources for a VM or add additional storage volumes to their configurations.
Simplicity is ultimately delivered to the cloud consumer through the Apps Library (Application and Appliance Library). The Apps library enables the Cloud Administrator to deliver virtual machine templates to the consumer so that self-service simply becomes a drag-and-drop operation. The Apps Library means that the Administrators can provide images and templates that are approved for running on the platform. Administrators can also provide application blueprints that save the configuration of a group of virtual machines to make it easy for users to create new applications. Tenant and administrator access to resources such as virtual machine templates and blueprints can be controlled by resource scopes, which are tenant access lists.
For the Service Provider the application opens up possibilities for providing Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings on top of the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform, or providing platform resources to resellers who may provide their own software applications. Enterprise Administrators can also upload their own images to the Apps Library, allowing them to bring their own software onto the Infrastructure platform. Service providers can use administration scopes to define the tenants and datacenters and public cloud regions that an administrator can manage.
The entire Abiquo platform is controlled through policy that allows the Cloud Administrator to maintain control of the physical infrastructure whilst delivering controlled self-service to the consumers. Policy controls how much of any resource is allocated to an Enterprise or VDC, where that resource is located, and (through privileges) how that resource can be used by the end consumer. Governance is also provided through dashboards and other data in the Abiquo GUI as well as reports that provide insight into how the infrastructure is being used and where virtual machines exist on the platform.
Finally operations on the Abiquo platform are all metered. Meaning that all resources allocated or consumed by Enterprises, VDCs and vApps are measured and tracked. This allows for chargeback reporting or billing of the cloud services. The Abiquo pricing information also enables a charge-forward notification to the user of how much they are likely to be charged for a vApp that they create through self-service, and pricing is also used by the billing system.
Abiquo Functional Map
Abiquo provides a Cloud Management platform that enables administrators to Manage Complexity and Deliver Simplicity. However, there is much more to the Cloud infrastructure than the Abiquo platform alone and it is important to understand where Abiquo sits in the overall environment.
...
The Abiquo metering data can be provided to billing providers through existing integrations, and additional services or integrations can be created on top of the Abiquo API. Typically this is used to integrate with existing portals that are used to present services to the users, or to enable new users to sign up to a service.