OpenStack Is On The Raise - Part1

Well, someone said OpenStack is fading out and its presence in the industry is shrinking day by day. Agree, that was a long time ago and we need to rephrase that statement saying ‘most of the organizations are using or wish to use OpenStack’ now.  The industrial trends and analysis points to OpenStack adoption in Hybrid Cloud space as one of the major cloud software’s. As enterprises try to be more secure and comply with the country wide norms & regulations the inclination towards OpenStack or alternative technology has become aggressive. So, in this blog page I’m trying to punch in the points and driving factors for enterprises in adopting OpenStack cloud solutions on broader perspective.  

Btw, before we get into the artifacts which are influencing OpenStack or similar technology in the market, let’s understand a bit of OpenStack first. 

What is OpenStack?

Definition from openstack.org 

OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.

OpenStack is open source software for building clouds. It is programmable infrastructure that allows users to have one platform for virtual machines, containers and bare metal. It is an open cloud computing platform founded by NASA & Rackspace in 2010, now managed by OpenStack Foundation, established in 2012. 

What are the driving factors of OpenStack adoption? 

If we look at the primary factors which are favoring the OpenStack adoption when compared to other alternatives available, we could list down them as given below:

• The Most Widely Deployed Open Source Cloud Software in the World.

• OpenStack is open: OpenStack embraces the four Os which are: Open Source, Open Design, Open Development & Open Community.

• Primary business driver for adoption of OpenStack is cost compared to public cloud*.

• Security & Compliance: Regional data or regulatory compliances which go hand-in-hand with security is another major driving factor for the adoption of OpenStack and its trends. 

• A wider community & sponsorship: It is well supported and sponsored by large enterprises such as IBM, AT & T, Ubuntu, SUSE, Red Hat, Intel, Rackspace, Hawaii and many more. 

• The cloud repatriation trend is another driving factor for more enterprises to look into OpenStack cloud or alternative*.

Why should i choose OpenStack?

You likely know an OpenStack user or vendor without even realizing it; half of the Fortune 100 uses OpenStack. 

OpenStack is trusted to manage 40 Million+ cores around the world, across dozens of industries. References: https://www.openstack.org/user-survey/2022-user-survey-report

Its global business grows at the CAGR of 29%: Based on the report by Market Research Future, OpenStack continues to grow at the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29%. Its global business, including solutions and services, is expected to reach $8M in 2023. References: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/openstack-service-market-5778

What are the common use cases of OpenStack? 

1- Private Clouds: Private cloud distributions run on OpenStack can provide more substantial benefits than private clouds built using custom code. IDC evaluated the value of Red Hat OpenStack Platform for private clouds and found that organizations realized annual benefits of $6.81 million.

2- Network Functions Virtualization (NFV): The technology which can logically create similar networking routers, switches on the software layer with the same impact as hardware component is another big factor which influences the OpenStack adoption and use cases.

3- Public Clouds & Hosting: OpenStack is the leading open source option for building public cloud environments. Whether your company is a multibillion-dollar publicly traded enterprise or a startup, you can use OpenStack to set up public clouds with services that compete with major public cloud providers.

4- Containers: OpenStack is a stable foundation for public and private clouds. Containers speed up application delivery while simplifying application deployment and management. Running containers on OpenStack can scale containers' benefits from single, siloed teams to enterprise-wide interdepartmental operations.

More use cases and references : https://www.openstack.org/use-cases/

OpenStack availability & key organizations in the OpenStack service market

OpenStack is developed and released around 6-month cycles. After the initial release, additional stable point releases will be released in each release series. The OpenStack project is provided under the Apache 2.0 license. The project is supported by the OpenInfra Foundation.

Latest stable (as of now*) OpenStack release is named Bobcat with the initial release dated 2023-10-04 [ next release which is in development:  Caracal (SLURP) (Skip Level Upgrade Release Process)]. 

References: https://releases.openstack.org/ & https://www.openstack.org/software/openstack-bobcat

OpenStack Distros: There are a many distributions available and maintained by different organization as listed below which are actively developing solutions with collaboration from OpenInfra Foundation, some of them offers commercial OpenStack distributions as well:

• Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) by Red Hat

• Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure

• VMware Integrated OpenStack

• Canonical’s Charmed OpenStack

• Debian OpenStack  

• Mirantis OpenStack for Kubernetes 

• FusionSphere OpenStack by Huawei 

• FishOS by Sardina Systems

• WhiteCloud OpenStack

• OSISM Distro

• DevStack 

Public Cloud Providers based on OpenStack: Some of the popular public service providers globally are listed below:

Open Telekom Cloud: Open Telekom Cloud is an international large-scale public OpenStack Powered Platform from Deutsche Telekom supported and operated by T-Systems out of Europe. https://open-telekom-cloud.com/en

OVH Public Cloud: OVH is a major player in the cloud market with a large public cloud built on 8 regions catering to customer needs. https://www.ovh.com/public-cloud/

VEXXHOST Public Cloud: VEXXHOST is an established hosting company specialized in providing public cloud computing services that are delivered using the OpenStack projects.

https://vexxhost.com/public-cloud/

China Unicom Cloud: China Unicom Cloud is founded by China Unicom to operate IDC and cloud computing business over China. https://www.chinaunicomglobal.com/eu/

Binero Public Cloud: Binero delivers public and managed cloud services based on OpenStack, produced in Sweden in compliance with both EU and local regulations. https://binero.com/

NIPA - Enterprise Public Cloud: OpenStack powered public cloud by NIPA to serve Thailand and South East Asia region. https://nipa.cloud/

ORockCloud: https://orocktech.com/orockcloud/

Infomaniak Public Cloud: Infomaniak Public Cloud is a High Performance OpenStack IaaS solution in Switzerland.      https://www.infomaniak.com/en/hosting/public-cloud

Next part: Covers the challenges, learning options, key organization behind OpenStack, stay tuned!