Key Features in Ubuntu 13.10 OpenStack

1. Tuned for all sizes

Canonical have re-tuned "Havana" (the latest OpenStack release) to better work with very small clusters (all the way down to five servers). This means the new release of Ubuntu's OpenStack can serve small and large companies. If you run the IT department for an SMB, you can now easily harness the same kind of power much larger companies have enjoyed for a long, long time.

2. New Landscape

This is the enterprise system management solution from Canonical. With 13.10 Landscape has been supercharged with a brand new suite of real-time monitoring and security update tools and dashboards. Cloud managers can now more easily monitor both OpenStack as well as their cloud and physical environments. With this handy tool you also get compliance monitoring, role-base access, a fully scriptable API, and much more.

3. ARM support

Havana now offers support for the latest generation of ARM processors. This means that Ubuntu 13.10's OpenStack can be used on more platforms than any other of its kind. This support comes thanks to numerous collaborations with hardware vendors to ensure the highest possible support for the largest amount of hardware.

4. Faster server deployment

Juju is the system that is charged with deploying complex applications in the Ubuntu cloud. With 13.10, this system gets a major overhaul to supercharge deployment times. We're looking at deployment times that are five-times faster than previous iterations of the Ubuntu OpenStack. Juju installer can now clone container files in less than one second.

5. Metal As Service

MAAS is a new means by which you provision hardware. With this tool you can easily manage your physical infrastructure as easily as you manage the software side of things. This new tool will help you with: Discovering, commissioning, and deployment of physical servers; dynamic re-allocation of physical servers (to match work load requirements); and retiring servers. One element of MAAS that should appeal to IT managers is that it helps you manage getting physical hardware ready "for work". This means you can quickly and easily get bare metal up and deployed.