Analyze the pros and cons of open source cloud computing

Searchcloudcomputing.com invited industry analyst Bill Claybrook to discuss market trends, how companies of all sizes should consider when creating an open-source cloud, and which supplier is the most influential. The idea of free is compelling for IT departments that want to implement cloud computing and are not constrained by vendor concerns. But the DIY nature of open source projects is a major drawback for small IT companies because they lack specialized technology developers to build and manage an Open-source cloud computing architecture. Like all new technologies, open source cloud computing software has its advantages and disadvantages.

What are the advantages of using open source cloud computing?

Bill Claybrook: Open source is a way to produce software and release software. It is just an example of execution. Open source means that there is no cost to use, as long as you are free to use it under a few rules, including the release rules that are already described in the open source usage instructions.

There are many open source cloud computing licenses, each of which usually has a number of different rules about how you can use open source code. If you're working on a real open source project, that means you have to download and use it, and then you need a technician who can really support open source code.

If you do not have the resources mentioned above and you want to use open source code, you may have to pay a third party for support. That way, the goal of saving money by using open source cloud computing is not achievable.

In other cases, if you are deploying a large number of servers (10,000 to 15,000 servers) like ebay, Amazon, Bank of America, and other large financial institutions, open source projects are of great importance. If you have to buy dedicated cloud computing software for each of those servers, the total cost associated with licensing is quite large. If you have a lot of servers and you're trying to create a cloud through server virtualization, then open source projects will be a good way to do it-especially with the hypervisor.

In addition, unlike a closed-source product, such as Oracle or Microsoft in particular, the license is not complex. With real open source code, you can get the use of license mobility, which means that cloud computing uses everything in the license. In a cloud computing environment-even if you're just virtualizing in your lab-you need to migrate application workloads between different servers, but you won't be able to migrate if you don't have a license to use the target server. With real open source, you will have greater latitude in the application migration between cloud computing. This is a huge advantage that can save you a lot of money.

You can also develop a system more quickly. If you are using open source software that is easy to access, you can implement the code and test it without having to spend any money on the license. You can get open source, download and develop a software system model that you need to test.

So you can save time, which on the other hand also saves costs. The way to develop and publish open source software allows you to implement a project in a quicker way and at a lower cost.

So what are the drawbacks of open source?

Claybrook: The biggest drawback of open source is lack of support. You have to have technicians to support open source projects and develop them based on that. If you are creating a system or platform using open source code, you may need to consolidate the code for a number of other open source projects. If you choose all the open source code to build a private cloud, then your team needs someone to consolidate all the components and make sure they are working properly.

Conversely, if I buy VMware's products, then the company may offer me a whole host of expensive products that are capable of working together. However, you will soon find that you are limited to VMware products.

Others may find open source software too frequent and sometimes annoying. Other developers think this is an advantage because you can always get new features faster.

Is the cost of owning in-house development professionals less than the licensing cost of commercial cloud computing software?

Claybrook: If you have a lot of servers, you really need to have technicians who can support open source projects. Large financial institutions tend to be more open source projects because they can easily implement code customization. Companies with the ability to implement technical support and modify the source code to support their own custom requirements should be able to handle the problem with ease. For example, if you are building a cloud based on five open source projects, you really need to have the technicians who are able to develop and release the projects specifically.

This way, if you have the functionality you want to implement, your technicians will be able to work under the framework of the Open source project team to get those features contained in the mainline code.

If the code you're using is derived from a large open source project, you might be able to search for a lot of support for the project online. However, if you are using a small and medium source project code in your cloud computing project, it may be difficult to find support. A company may also switch to open source project code because it can be used to meet specific business needs.

If you find open source software that is truly strategic to your business, then that's another reason to make a choice. For example, a product with open source software can manage all your management programs, so you can manage both public and private cloud computing from a single workstation.

What are the main open-source cloud providers?

Claybrook: There are a few. Many cloud computing providers are based on closed sources, but there are other vendors that are based on open source. Eucalyptus Systems is an Open-source company whose products are based on open source code. Using Eucalyptus Release 3, the entire platform is open source. The company is making a profit by selling its annual use, including business plug-ins and technical support. You can build a private cloud;

It supports many Amazon Resilient Cloud computing (EC2) application programming interfaces (APIs). If you have a full VMware environment, you can implement Eucalyptus IaaS (infrastructure as a service) on top of VMware Virtualization Server installations and build a private cloud computing. In the last year, Eucalyptus company has increased its employees by one times.

Then, if you want to implement a project like OpenStack, it's like the darling of the open source world. Even if OpenStack is open source, he is not really targeting small and medium business users. It is primarily suitable for companies and service providers that have the technical capability to process products. OpenStack is not supported unless you want to buy OpenStack from a partner such as Rackspace. You can also get some help from OpenStack project members. Then there is Ubuntu, which is the open source operating system of canonical, which has been bundled with eucalyptus.

Another cool open source cloud computing provider is Abiquo, whose managed product is a single console that can manage both private cloud computing and public cloud computing. It has nothing to do with the management program, it is a very cool open source product.

All of these open source products provide a commercial or commercial version of the Open-source Project code. Generally speaking, the functionality provided by the commercial closed source product is not available in the open source version of the product. If there is a new feature that a user really needs, some vendors will be able to integrate this functionality into an older version of the Open-source software they release.

How is the problem with cloud computing interoperability?

Claybrook: This is a very interesting question. My definition of interoperability is to move an application from one environment to another. Most cloud computing environments-such as Terremark cloud computing, or Amazon cloud computing or Savvis cloud computing-all are implemented through the use of different management programs, different operating systems, and different database systems. When you have an application that wants to move it from your data center or your private cloud computing to the public cloud, it won't work if it doesn't take much effort.

The problem is that, first of all, if you use Microsoft products across platforms, this creates interoperability issues and also limits your access to their software products. Second, if you want to move an application from Microsoft based cloud computing to another environment, you can choose to have almost another Microsoft based cloud computing, otherwise there will be many other problems in migrating applications. For now, interoperability is almost an elusive desire.

So, what are some of the other costs of an open source cloud product?

Claybrook: If you want to use open source in a reasonable way, you really need to have a certain developer working on the project full-time. If you want to implement some functionality from your code, you can get it through your developers. The increased costs include two to three developers who work on the project at least part-time.

Another cost of open source is that you can't get all the software from one place. If you choose Eucalyptus Company, they may give me all the software I need. But if my open source software PRODUCT is pieced together like many companies, someone must be able to integrate all of these things and make sure it works, tests, and so on.

If you have a professional who can do this integration work, you must also test it. So, while you may save some costs by using open source software for free licenses, better scalability, and even performance, you still have to spend money on developers.

Open source is good, but you have to be very careful. You are about to start a huge project. If you don't have real expertise inside your company, you'd better hire someone to help you or buy a business version.