OpenStack Gains Critical Mass; Are Cloud Channel Partners Ready?
OpenStack, the open source cloud program, has achieved multiple milestones this week. Cisco Systems (CSCO), Canonical, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Red Hat (RHT), VMware (VMW), Mirantis and others have announced major moves at this week’s OpenStack Summit in Hong Kong. From cloud services providers (CSPs) to VARs, it’s time for the IT channel to take a much closer look at this technology and its business implications. Here’s why.
OpenStack started off as an open source project led by Rackspace (RAX) and NASA. The idea was to help customers and CSPs rapidly stand up private and public clouds rapidly. In theory, if OpenStack became ubiquitous, it would allow customers and service providers to more easily move workloads from one cloud to another. In some ways, OpenStack has also emerged as a potential standard alternative to Amazon Web Services (AWS).
OpenStack News
Fast forward to the present and OpenStack has moved far beyond the Rackspace and NASA heritage. Similar to how multiple Linux distributions emerged, Red Hat and a long list of rivals have introduced their own OpenStack distributions. And this week a flood of additional news has arrived. For instance:
- Red Hat is pitching CloudForms as a management platform for OpenStack private clouds. Also, a Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure Partner Network has expanded beyond compute (Nova), Networking (Neutron) and Block Storage (Cinder) to include networking storage, object storage (Swift) and image storage (glance). The basic idea: Red Hat is striving to build an OpenStack ecosystem across servers, storage, networking and more.
- Canonical has unveiled an OpenStack Lab for partners and ISVs. Key backers include Cisco, Dell, Intel, IBM, Juniper and more. The goal: Make sure OpenStack solutions are built on Ubuntu, Canonical’s Linux distribution.
- Hewlett-Packard has put OpenStack Horizon into production as the core technology behind HP Public Cloud Console. The HP Cloud OS also leverages OpenStack Horizon. Early adopters include PeriShip, a supply chain company for perishable products. For more information, check out HP’s OpenStack Microsite.
- Cisco has announced three accelerator packages for its Unfied Compute System (UCS) servers and data center platform. The effort includes OpenStack support.
- VMware and Mirantis — a leading IT consulting company — are putting OpenStack and vSphere.
Re-read that bullet list of news. The OpenStack Summit is in Hong Kong, yet the cloud announcements involve U.S. companies with global messages. Of all the companies listed above, VARs should keep the closest eye on Mirantis — an IT consulting firm that understands how to build OpenStack clouds.
It’s still early in the OpenStack game. But it’s time for VARs to figure out if they want to step onto this playing field.