Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes Improves Support for AI and Windows Workloads

By Business Wire On Mar 12, 2024

Virtualizes NVIDIA GPUs, improves Windows support, and can replace VMware at lower cost

Mirantis announced the latest release of Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes (MOSK). The release incorporates hundreds of improvements from the open source upstream, plus dozens of innovations including graphics processing unit (GPU) virtualization – especially useful for cost-effectively running artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.

“In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, organizations are increasingly reliant on AI and highly-intensive compute tasks for competitive advantage”

MOSK 24.1 introduces GPU virtualization as a technical preview, letting multiple cloud applications efficiently share resources of physical NVIDIA GPU boards. GPU virtualization helps optimize costs – maximizing utilization of expensive GPU hardware – while letting more teams and business units take advantage of processing power. Leveraging NVIDIA’s AI Enterprise software platform, MOSK enables physical processing resources to be portioned and presented to workloads as dedicated resources for accelerated performance and optimal resource allocation.

“In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, organizations are increasingly reliant on AI and highly-intensive compute tasks for competitive advantage,” said Roman Zhnichkov, director of engineering, Mirantis. “MOSK 24.1 empowers enterprises to harness the power of NVIDIA GPU virtualization technologies, enabling cost-effective AI hosting while enhancing operational agility.”

MOSK 24.1 is built on OpenStack Antelope – the first OpenStack release designated as SLURP (Skip Level Upgrade Release Process). Users of MOSK 24.1 running OpenStack Yoga will be able to upgrade directly to Antelope, skipping the intermediate OpenStack Zed. This saves operational overhead for users to stay current. Other key improvements include:

UEFI booting for virtual machines enables MOSK to run modern Windows, for example, Windows 11 as guests, accommodating additional workloads efficiently and helping control costs in clouds hosting a lot of Windows applications. MOSK 24.1 also includes improved support for Secure Boot, virtual Trusted Platform Modules, and Hyper-V emulation, for workloads requiring these features.
SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments) protocol for remote access to virtual machines as an option to replace VNC, offering enhanced security capabilities. SPICE has become a widely accepted open standard for secure remote access.
Enhanced security features with updates to OpenStack Helm charts and default network policies for Kubernetes pods running control plane services to meet the most stringent security requirements.

MOSK enables on-premise cloud infrastructure for cloud-native and traditional applications, ensuring reliability and complete control over application data. MOSK provides automated management of the underlying infrastructure, from hardware provisioning to software configuration, plus centralized logging, monitoring, and alerting.

Mirantis offers a TCO calculator that will provide an approximation of how much can be saved by moving to Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes from other infrastructure, such as VMware.

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