OpenStack farce and the future of the cloud

For a while, I was fascinated by OpenStack, an exciting Open-source project that has evolved into a "cloud operating system" for data centers. Last week, however, it suffered a heavy blow from Citrix, and as a chartered member of the OpenStack camp, Citrix suddenly claimed to have lost confidence in OpenStack, declared its exit and created an Open-source project of its own cloudstack-- This is the same functionality as Citrix's own cloud software.

I think such a farce is not unexpected. OpenStack's ambition is great. As a collaborative project launched by Rackspace and NASA (NASA), OpenStack boasts a large and growing cloud service that includes virtual machine management, object storage, machine image management, And the latest version of Essex also increased identity authentication and dashboard monitoring services. The idea is that anyone can use OpenStack under the Apache 2 License framework to create their own openstack versions, just as many vendors develop their own Linux distributions based on the Linux kernel. Citrix also seems to support this pattern.

But Citrix said no. We believe that some components of openstack are naïve and slow to grow, Citrix said. We think the cloud operating system is a very good idea, customers have this request, but they want to use it now, and not wait until OpenStack mature and then use. When I asked the Citrix spokesperson, the OpenStack project was managed in a way that was not the reason for Citrix's exit and was quickly answered with a positive answer. The answer clearly suggests that OpenStack is a disorganized project with too many cooks chefs and a lack of centralized co-ordination.

Nebula's CEO, Chris Kemp, is a member of the OpenStack project's NASA side, and what he sees is somewhat different. Just last week he gave InfoWorld's special editor, Oliver Rist, a blunt assertion: "I think Citrix is lying." "In his view, Citrix was actually invested in the cloud.com that it bought 200 million dollars last year, so it is now necessary to provide more core code for the Cloudstack developed by the latter."

I don't want to comment on the real motives of Citrix, or on who's technology is better, or at least wait until the InfoWorld Test Center makes a horizontal evaluation. From a certain level, you could say the dispute is a rackspace of interest between Citrix and the world, and a clash of two second-rate manufacturers in cloud computing. Kemp that "Citrix's contribution to the Cloudstack, which is also open source, is not an outsider's field." But Rackspace told me that Rackspace contributed "about 60% of the code" to OpenStack, presumably with the code bought from NASA.

Either way, both are open source projects – in fact, it's amazing how open source projects can leave such brilliant footprints in such an important new field. But none of this is happening in a vacuum. EMC's VMware is piecing together its complex commercial cloud solutions to extend its application management. Given the long-term leadership of VMware in the virtualization arena, it is entirely possible for the industry to launch a fully fledged cloud solution first. Microsoft is also pushing ahead with a strong combination of its proprietary cloud software.

For some companies, the split farce that erupted last week may have created two completely different code bases, but could also raise concerns about the legal mines implied by Open-source code. These companies may be tempted to pay their licensing fees and turn to commercial cloud solutions that they have become accustomed to. Other companies may be attracted by Citrix or eucalyptus or Red Hat's new OpenStack equivalents. But I personally think that OpenStack wants to be as ubiquitous as Linux on an enterprise server, and that the idea of becoming a ubiquitous Open-source cloud operating system in an enterprise's private cloud is appealing-if one day the technology can become a continuous architecture that eventually emerges to manage mixed private /Gang Youyun, then its importance will be increased.

You can bet that most public cloud providers will take open source paths, as they have always done. Within a few years from now, they will say to customers: With the same cloud management software used by the enterprise, you can seamlessly improve cloud management capabilities. Although this is very inconsistent with the current reality, it might happen one day.

Indeed, some big manufacturers such as Amazon, Google and Salesforce have developed their own cloud management systems, but many other providers will choose OpenStack, cloudstack or other open source solutions. Once your business has a certain scale, you have to know how much of the company's profits will flow into VMware's pockets.

The betrayal of Citrix does weaken the power of OpenStack, but OpenStack has a strong momentum of development that can overcome this crisis. Who can really understand the cloud management architecture, who will eventually win, and I am quite sure that the open source project will eventually win, the only reason is that the development trend of open source public cloud is inevitable.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)