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Rackspace: OpenStack threatens VMware

OpenStack is to cloud computing as Linux is to the client operating system, and it will enjoy a similar level of success, according to Rackspace's chief strategy officer Lew Moorman.Moorman told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that OpenStack, or an equivalent open-source infrastructure system like it, will be picked up to drive cloud services as it eliminates the software cost of running a basic cloud service.
Written by Jack Clark, Contributor

OpenStack is to cloud computing as Linux is to the client operating system, and it will enjoy a similar level of success, according to Rackspace's chief strategy officer Lew Moorman.

Moorman told ZDNet UK on Tuesday that OpenStack, or an equivalent open-source infrastructure system like it, will be picked up to drive cloud services as it eliminates the software cost of running a basic cloud service.

"Not only can [OpenStack] control servers and compute but it can also control networks and storage. [These are] all the elements you need to run an efficient cloud," Moorman said.

"It is threatening to many of the established client-server companies [such as] VMware. This is a much cheaper way to do what [companies have] been doing with VMware," he added.

OpenStack supports a range of virtualisation technologies, including the open-source KVM hypervisor as well as VMware's vSphere.

Moorman sees OpenStack as part of a growing set of open-source methods for creating enterprise infrastructure, such as the Facebook-led Open Compute Project.

"I don't know that the average workload is going to be running in a traditional SAN in the long run or on traditional servers," he said. "I think HP and Dell should embrace the [Open Compute server]."

By 2020, Moorman expects fewer companies to be offering clouds. These companies, he believes, will have large fleets of servers running on commoditised and open-source infrastructure. OpenStack is part of the vanguard of technologies that are encouraging this approach, he argues.

"The [cloud] shift is applications moving elsewhere... the long tail of applications are moving to the cloud," said Rackspace's chief executive, Lanham Napier.

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