Open Stack

We are pleased to introduce Watcher, a new project in the OpenStack 
ecosystem. We believe that a "resource optimization" service in an 
OpenStack-based cloud is a crucial component that has been missing to 
date and we have started working towards filling that gap.

OpenStack Watcher provides a flexible and scalable resource 
optimization service for multi-tenant OpenStack-based clouds. 
Watcher provides a complete optimization loop—including everything 
from a metrics receiver, complex event processor and profiler, 
optimization processor and an action plan applier. This provides a 
robust framework to realize a wide range of cloud optimization goals, 
including the reduction of data center operating costs, increased 
system performance via intelligent virtual machine migration, 
increased energy efficiency—and more!

Not only does Watcher provide several out-of-box optimization routines 
for immediate value-add, but it also supports a pluggable 
architecture by which custom optimization algorithms, data metrics and 
data profilers can be developed and inserted into the Watcher framework.
Additionally, Watcher enables two different modes of execution—advise 
mode (manual) or active mode (automatic), giving cloud administrators 
the runtime flexibilities that their clouds require. Most importantly, 
administrators of OpenStack-based clouds equipped with Watcher will 
decrease their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by way of more efficient 
use of their infrastructure and less “hands on” (read: manual) 
administrator involvement to perform optimizations.

More information, including key use cases, architecture, etc., are 
described on the project wiki [0].  Also feel free to browse some 
source code [1, 2].

We meet weekly on Wednesdays at 16:00 UTC in the #openstack-meeting-3 
IRC channel. You can also use #openstack-watcher to contact the team. 

We hope to see you at our unconference session at the upcoming 
OpenStack Summit in Tokyo and we are welcoming participation from the 
community.  Let us know if you are interested in this topic and 
join us in #openstack-watcher!

Regards,

Antoine Cabot (Watcher PTL) (acabot)
Susanne Balle (sballe)
Joe Cropper (jwcroppe)

[0] https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Watcher
[1] https://github.com/openstack/watcher
[2] https://github.com/openstack/python-watcherclient