Robert Pogson

After slagging OpenStack for “Hype around open-source CMPs (cloud management platforms) is causing some customers to make unfounded assumptions that may lead to poor sourcing decisions when they are choosing a CMP to build a private cloud, or when buying cloud IaaS from a service provider. Some people have been led to believe that because OpenStack is open source, it is an open and widely-adopted standard, with broad interoperability and freedom from commercial interests. In reality, OpenStack is dominated by commercial interests, as it is a business strategy for the vendors involved, not the effort of a community of altruistic individual contributors.”

Gartner says:
“OpenStack may eventually become a solid open-source core at the heart of a large and successful ecosystem of commercial offerings,” Leong says, noting some of the positive benefits she sees around the project. It has quickly become one of the four most important cloud computing infrastructure ecosystems along with Amazon Web Services, VMware and Microsoft, she says. The code is architected for true cloud-scale deployments and she expects it will “evolve into a successful solution for those looking for a basic, low-cost CMP.” Vendors will leverage it to build products and services, albeit while adding proprietary extensions and capabilities on top of the code. The launch of the OpenStack Foundation, she says, “may potentially resolve some of the interoperability and fragmentation issues, as well as (provide) overall stronger project governance and management and will be crucial for moving OpenStack beyond a niche, early-adopter solution, to something that is suitable for mainstream enterprise adoption.”

see Gartner report throws cold water on uber-hyped OpenStack project.

Chuckle. Poor Gartner. For a decade they have been slagging FLOSS but FLOSS keeps working for people in all branches of IT. So what if it is “over-hyped”? Other systems have salesmen. FLOSS just has code that works. OpenStack will have some salesmen, too, because of the major contributors being in business. It’s all good.