Explore the open source cloud world two strategies - whether you still need to follow AWS?

The open source cloud world now looks as if controversy has emerged more and more. At a seminar some time ago, three representatives from the open-source cloud deployment software platform: OpenStack, Citrix's CloudStack, and Eucalyptus have been competing from beginning to end.

The heart of the debate was naturally about Amazon Web Services (AWS), which was not involved in the discussion, and most of the conversations and criticisms between the two took place almost exclusively on the strategies their respective companies took on AWS. The strategy for Eucalyptus and CloudStack for AWS is to maintain consistency with the AWS application programming interfaces. OpenStack, which powers AWS through Kai Source, uses a very different strategy, trying to position itself as an open source alternative to AWS.

Marten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus, said at this week's Structure conference that Eucalyptus strongly supports AWS because AWS is the market leader. Asked if Eucalyptus will support the OpenStack API, Mickos said: "When we see it widely deployed in the form of commercial products, we consider supporting it."

Chris Kemp, co-founder of OpenStack and incumbent president of cloud provider Nebula, questioned Eucalyptus's argument that given its long-term strategy of working closely with AWS, OpenStack is an open source project, after all.

"You do not have control over the Amazon APIs, they're closed-door management," he said. "There's only one company in the world that can define these APIs." He added that Eucalyptus's efforts to align itself with AWS have deviated from its open-source standards. Eucalyptus and AWS reached an agreement earlier this year that allows for a federated alliance between the two systems.

In the meantime, Sameer Dholakia, vice president and general manager of Citrix Cloud Platform Group, said OpenStack did not do much to support AWS integration with the project, and Citrix announced a few months ago that its open source CloudStack software will join the Apache Software Foundation (Now formally part of the Apache open source project), Citrix made it clear. The three representatives also agreed with the view that while both Eucalyptus and CloudStack are from the same company's products, Openstack is open source and vendors or end users can use code changes to help them manage their cloud environments. Dholakia said everyone holds a different perspective on how to deliver specific cloud offerings.

"There is a completely different perspective on pragmatism serving customers," he said. "Both Apache CloudStack and Eucalyptus agree that you have to support the Amazon APIs, and it's estimated that there are now about $ 1 billion in revenue and ecosystem on that platform Running, in the face of such a big market, it seems weird if you do not support the platform for these customers to work on your platform. "

Kemp responded that OpenStack has broad support from major technology vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM, Rackspace, Cisco and others. He predicts that in just a few years only one of these three projects will "survive." Mickos said he is willing to fight the bet, adding that the most important partnership right now is a partnership with AWS, "I prefer the Amazon ecosystem because it amounts to choosing an API, which is where developers gather local."

Mickos turned OpenStack into an industry consortium and even made the project analogous to the Soviet Union.

Kemp has his own words for AWS, saying that he made AWS the "Wal-Mart for Infrastructure" because it is fast, secure and cost-effective. "But will it always be safe, always with high performance, always reliable?"

At the close of the half-hour conversation, a spectator asked the three representatives to "embrace", embracing them a little embarrassedly, which seems to indicate the current tensions in the open-source cloud market.