Introduction¶
SlipStream, developed by SixSq, is an affordable, multi-cloud application management platform that supports DevOps, Big Data and Smart City strategies platform.
Main Features¶
Multi-machine Provisioning System: SlipStream allows users to define and execute deployments, based on high-level recipes that are independent of the cloud on which the deployment will run. SlipStream coordinates the provisioning of virtual machines, synchonizing the deployment and configuration of individual machines as defined in the deployment recipe.
For example, users can deploy entire multi-tier software systems on-demand and in a single action. With SlipStream, this operation takes a few minutes, compared to hours (or days!) for manual installations.
Multi-cloud Provisioning: SlipStream supports multiple cloud providers and multi-cloud deployments, through a plug-in connector design. (See supported connectors below.) Users select the cloud service providers and technologies when deploying virtual machines, from within a single SlipStream service. Furthermore, users can place parts of a deployment on different cloud services or regions, automating redundant and error-resistent deployments.
To illustrate, users can deploy computing clusters, load-balanced applications, and multi-media processing pipelines, for example, across several cloud providers to improve the resilience of the service and to reduce latencies by co-locating data and computing resources, while reducing costs.
Support continuous integration processes with continuous deployment: SlipStream encourages users to parameterize image creation and deployment recipes, such that key parameters (e.g. software version, package location, dependencies, inter-relationships) can be provided at runtime. This means that it is easy to integrate SlipStream with continuous integration servers to provide a full deployment chain.
For instance, users can provision complete server-side systems in a single action in order to test and certify a specific version of the system.
Independence from specific IaaS interfaces and hypervisors: the SlipStream recipes are independent of specific IaaS interfaces, avoiding vendor lock-in and allowing you to focus on configuration and deployment of your application, instead of the specifics of each IaaS.
For example, users can seamlessly apply the same image construction recipes and multi-machine deployments to different cloud providers, yielding the same results every time.
Community sharing platform: the SlipStream data model permits users to share their image and deployment recipes with other users, encouraging collaboration within a community, something dear to agile and DevOps principles.
Supported Clouds¶
SlipStream communicates to IaaS clouds services via a connector architecture. In general, the connectors for open source IaaS implementations are released under the same license (Apache 2) as the SlipStream core; connectors for proprietary solutions are closed source and available via a commercial license.
The following table shows the production connectors. Alpha and beta connectors for other proprietary clouds may also be available; request information via the SlipStream support.
| Connector | Type |
|---|---|
| Amazon EC2 | proprietary |
| CloudStack | open source |
| Exoscale | proprietary |
| OpenNebula | open source |
| OpenStack | open source |
| Open Telekom Cloud | proprietary |
| NuvlaBox | proprietary |
| VMWare vCloud | proprietary |
SlipStream Edition¶
SlipStream is available in two editions, Community and Enterprise. Commercial support and proprietary connectors (see above) are only available on the Enterprise edition; otherwise the two editions are identical.
For each edition, we maintain three repositories:
- Snapshots: most recent code base but software may be unstable
- Candidates: software releases that may be stable but not yet been validated for production
- Releases: stable releases verified for production
We create new candidate releases every two weeks and deploy those candidates on our Nuvla service.