DevOps and OpenStack: Where is the road?

OpenStack has attracted the most attention in the industry, a project that promises to build a common infrastructure for public cloud computing and private cloud computing. If OpenStack can be implemented on a large scale, its architecture will be able to further intensify the implementation of the hybrid cloud computing, and will help build the cloud computing alliance and support some key configuration tasks related to the efficient cloud computing operation.

Even, it will be able to change our view of the relationship between cloud computing and the Web. However, like most other technologies, will openstack be at risk of being overly hyped? This is probably the most critical issue in cloud computing, and it's hard to give a proper answer.

OpenStack Architecture: A competitive congenitally deficient?

Originally a project developed by NASA and Rackspace, OpenStack was designed to provide a cloud computing framework that could run on mature commercial hardware products. The OpenStack architecture encompasses various patterns in cloud computing, including resource allocation, machine-image registration and control, and data storage. Currently, the project has more than 150 organizations involved, making it the most popular software tool for creating an infrastructure, a service (IaaS) environment.

But as a commercial cloud computing platform, the number of users still lags behind Amazon's resilient Cloud Computing (EC2), and Microsoft's Azure platform is a formidable competitor. Its IaaS focus, the broad industry support it receives, and the intense competition it faces are all important factors in OpenStack becoming strong or weak.

IaaS is the most basic form of cloud computing, and basically the virtual bare-metal It provides is a server. Because it is only a replacement server and possible local storage, IaaS has a relatively high relative user cost and a lower profit relative to the platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). Although potential cloud computing vendors and users can build PAAs and SaaS on top of IaaS, it is difficult to measure the benefits of these more complex configurations. But if operators are focused on the OpenStack IaaS, they may jump onto the platform offered by hundreds of of rivals, which could put them in a position to differentiate them from their cloud computing services, except through pricing.

The objection is that the OpenStack architecture can actually help service providers differentiate their cloud products by providing all the basics for IaaS, allowing vendors to focus on other features and enhancements. OpenStack is open source, easy to integrate, and has been associated with a number of interesting projects, which have led to the gradual upgrading of its basic functions. In fact, many of these projects have the intersection, which contributes to a variety of OpenStack deployments targeting specific market opportunities, providing suppliers with a wide range of products to differentiate between their products and competitors.

One of the biggest competitors for a cloud computing provider is not another OpenStack based vendor. It's Amazon.

Unlike other IaaS cloud computing tools such as Eucalyptus or nebula, the OpenStack architecture is not concerned with EC2 compatibility. OpenStack Computing uses an application programming interface (API) that differs from the EC2 pattern, but the OpenStack community is committed to maintaining EC2 compatibility of existing applications. Although it may still be possible to build an application on the OpenStack running on EC2, and vice versa, it may still build a OpenStack based on IaaS application that is completely incompatible with EC2.

There are significant differences between these two platforms in mirroring management and storage. This means two things: it may be harder to use EC2 and OpenStack cloud computing to support customers, and cloud computing providers using OpenStack cannot expect to relocate EC2 users to their services without making changes to their applications or their own environments.

DevOps and OpenStack: Where is the road?

In terms of technical integrity, there are other problems with the OpenStack architecture.

You can extend the basic mechanism of OpenStack resource control to facilitate support for the container configuration model, where applications are related to containers and their rules. The rules include how to assign resources to a given application and how to troubleshoot problems when the application is serviced. These projects belong to a common directory called DevOps, which defines how to unify cloud computing application development, cloud computing configuration, and application deployment. DevOps is not critical in IaaS cloud computing, where simple practical virtual machines replace dedicated internal servers, but it is absolutely critical if an IaaS product is to be used to build a particular cloud application.

The recent study by IBM of the importance of using cloud computing to restructure business processes (not just outsourcing existing applications) suggests that the future of cloud computing may lie in how it supports the work that we cannot do today in the data center, rather than simply updating the work that we have done. This means writing a new cloud computing application. If you do so, modern software practices such as DevOps (which facilitates the assembly and orchestration of software elements) must provide a mechanism for these elements to find each other in the cloud. If an IaaS cloud computing is used for hosting PAAs or SaaS services, it is essential to have the same application flexibility.

Here's another problem: OpenStack's devops are incomplete, and unless carefully combed, PAAs, SaaS, or a particular cloud-specific application cannot be easily implemented on the OpenStack architecture.

Some people think that all the problems of OpenStack are unique to OpenStack, of course, it is not entirely fair to say so. In fact, most of these problems are related to the IAAS model of cloud computing services. But now, OpenStack applications may be the only service option in the IaaS market, but in the long run it may not be the best service choice for the vendor. All this needs to be considered carefully before the decision OpenStack architecture is the best framework for building a common cloud computing infrastructure.