nebula+facebook= Cheap private cloud?

Nebula, a former CTO of NASA, Chris C. Kemp, created a cloud-computing venture with a dream team, claiming that it had developed a device that could configure private cloud computing infrastructure in minutes.

What prompted Nebula to configure the private cloud infrastructure so quickly? The answer is OpenStack. Orenstack is the Open-source cloud computing platform that the founder and CEO of Nebula Company, Chris Kemp, helped develop during NASA. Nebula is currently working with Facebook's Open hardware program, open Compute project, to provide cheaper hardware, enabling more and more businesses to deploy their own private cloud. Open Compute Project is an open source project that is launched by Facebook for server and Datacenter technology.

"Internet and gaming companies should not be the only objects that use the technology," says Kemp. Companies are often faced with the option of relying on public cloud infrastructure (such as Amazon's network services), buying expensive proprietary hardware and software, or hiring professional teams that can integrate various open-source technologies.

Nebula, headquartered in Palo Alto, wants to offer alternative options, Nebula claims to provide a reasonably affordable solution for a private cloud computing infrastructure (but Nebula has not yet revealed specific prices) and can be deployed on thousands of inexpensive computers.

Frank Frankovsky, head of Facebook's Open hardware project, said that "if the nebula executes well, they have a chance to fill the gap in the market now". They are now unique based on OpenStack products and open computing.

Nebula CEO Chris Kemp

Why does Facebook focus on private cloud deployments, including its potential rivals and other companies? Not so, Facebook is concerned with how to improve the design of its existing servers, data centers, and hardware storage devices. Make it run more efficiently to save costs. Facebook unveiled its design blueprint and wants to swap with other companies ' innovative Open-source software styles.

New features of social networks, such as Buzz, and their privacy issues can lead to a lot of controversy. Open hardware projects, by contrast, are much less attractive. The project, which was announced in April this year, aims to provide customized server and data center technology. In the past few months, the project has quietly made a small progress. Facebook says it has more than 1000 community participants, and about 250 non-Facebook employees attended the open hardware Conference for the first time last month. The next meeting is in October this year, when Nebula will certainly appear.

"Nebula has some very talented engineers and they will make a positive contribution," Frankovsky of Facebook said.

At the same time, Nebula also has some very important investors (Nebula also did not disclose the exact amount of money), and its investors include Sun Microsystems founder Andy Bechtolsheim and venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Five pilot clients, including energy, finance, biotechnology and media, will start deploying Nebula private cloud devices this October.

"Our business model is very simple, you just need to buy a box and plug in the server," Kemp said. We hope to break the pattern of the existing market.

Of course, Nebula uses open source software and hardware to provide a cheaper private cloud deployment solution. But the definition of open source technology means that other companies can use it as well. Dell has just released a OpenStack based solution and claims to be able to replace the existing cloud solution based on proprietary licensing software. OpenStack and Facebook's Open computing program is still in its infancy, but predictably, there will be more open source cloud infrastructure in the market in the years to come.

(Responsible editor: admin)