SAP Infrastructure as a Service offers 20+ multi-tenant API features in a single infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform to address most of our customers’ use cases.
Many features are OpenStack API services that SAP Infrastructure as a Service uses for basic functionality, such as the compute, storage, and networking services.
There are additional features that have been created in-house by the SAP Infrastructure as a Service team.
Those features have been created for the following reasons:
- There was a requirement from an SAP stakeholder for such a service
- The OpenStack API specified services didn't fulfill the line of business’s requirements
- There simply wasn't a service that did what we needed it to do
So, that gives us a total of 20+ features that make up the SAP Infrastructure as a Service solution.
Lets look at the features:
Compute:
Virtual Servers (Nova)
This is the primary virtual computing engine in SAP Infrastructure as a Service. It deploys and manages large numbers of virtual machines and other instances to handle computing tasks. SAP Infrastructure as a Service virtual compute service implements OpenStack Nova API.
Example:
Baremetal Servers (Ironic)
This enables customers to use hardware directly, deploying the workload (image) onto a real physical machine instead of a virtualized instance on a hypervisor. SAP Infrastructure as a Service baremetal service implements OpenStack Ironic API.
Image Service (Glance)
"Images" refers to images (or virtual copies) of hard disks. The Image Service allows these images to be used as templates when deploying new virtual machine instances. SAP Infrastructure as a Service Image Service implements OpenStack Glance API.
Example:
Storage:
Block Storage (Cinder)
This is more analogous to the traditional notion of a computer being able to access specific locations on a disk drive. This more traditional way of accessing files might be important in scenarios where data access speed is the most important consideration. SAP Infrastructure as a Service block storage implements OpenStack Cinder API.
File Storage (Manila)
Provides management of file shares as core service to SAP Infrastructure as a Service. SAP Infrastructure as a Service file share service implements Openstack Manila API. Manila currently works with NetApp, Red Hat storage (GlusterFS) and EMC VNX, as well as on a base Linux NFS or Samba server.
Example:
Object Storage (Swift):
The best suited to backup and archive unstructured data, such as documents, images, audio and video files, e-mail and virtual machine images. SAP Infrastructure as a Service object storage service implements Openstack Swift API.
Example:
Auto-Scaling Service (Castellum)
Service that enables auto-scaling for storage.
Containers:
Kubernetes-as-a-Service (Kubernikus)
An open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. The "Kubernetes as a Service" offering on Converged Cloud (Codename: Kubernikus) makes it easy to run Kubernetes clusters that are natively integrated with OpenStack. It is a managed service that assists in the operations of Kubernetes.
Example:
Gardener:
Implements the automated management and operation of Kubernetes clusters as a service and provides support for multiple cloud providers. Its main principle is to leverage Kubernetes concepts for all of its tasks.
Container Registry (Keppel)
This manages a global replicating farm of container registries, to manager private registries. More information can be found in the Image Registry.
Networking:
Network Service L2/L3 (Neutron)
Network-as-a-Service is used for managing and handling the various network components in the SAP Infrastructure as a Service, including routing and network address translation (NAT). It helps to ensure that each of the components of SAP Infrastructure as a Service deployment can communicate with one another quickly and efficiently. SAP Infrastructure as a Service network service implements OpenStack Neutron API.
DNS (Designate)
This provides DNS management capability in SAP Infrastructure as a Service and enables the ability to use DNS-as-a-Service. SAP Infrastructure as a Service DNS service implements OpenStack Designate API.
Load Balancing (Octavia):
This provides load balancing capabilities for SAP Infrastructure as a Service. The load balancing service can be used to provision custom load balancers with special traffic rules for a variety of protocols.
Notifications:
Email Service (Cronus)
This provides an efficient, secure method to send email directly from your application hosted on the SAP Infrastructure as a Service infrastructure. It enables the sending of emails at scale and in a cost-effective manner. Our service is backed by the proven Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), thereby enabling a higher deliverability, and ensuring greater sender reputation.
Access Management:
Identity Service (Keystone)
This provides a central directory of users, groups, their permissions, credentials, projects and services with their endpoints. The identity service is used for authentication (authN), high-level authorization (authZ) and service-discovery.
Key Management (Barbican)
This REST API designed for the secure storage, provisioning, and management of secrets.
Example:
Monitoring:
Billing (Cloud Billing & Reporting)
This is used to bill customers.
Resource Management (Limes)
Enables users to manage their specific project needs. In this way, it helps to manage the infrastructure needed for a cloud service to run. SAP Infrastructure as a Service quota service implements OpenStack Limes API.
Metrics (Maia)
Maia is a service that provides available metrics about the resources of an OpenStack project, such as servers (VMs) and load balancers. It offers a web user interface, a command-line client, and a REST API for easy integration.
Example:
Audit Trail (Hermes)
Hermes provides an audit trail or change log for various services for SAP Infrastructure as a Service. It records audit-relevant activities and stores them in a project-specific audit_trail. Each recorded activity is represented by an audit event. The event describes the performed activity, the outcome, and the resources that are affected.
Example:
