OpenStack shows momentum along with code
The open source cloud project is actually two projects. A compute project and an object storage project.
The first release is called Austin, after the Texas capitol. The next release will be called Bexar -- that's the county where San Antonio is located. (It's pronounced bear.) Sponsor Rackspace is based in a former shopping mall in northeast San Antonio.
The Object Storage release is based on Rackspace Cloudfiles, which was sent out as a developer release in July. It's offered under an Apache 2.0 license.
The OpenStack "business model" is based on serving three business constituencies:
- service providers building cloud offerings,
- enterprises and government agencies deploying private clouds, and
- the ecosystem of cloud technology providers integrating with OpenStack.
The group said 37 organizations are now formally participating in the community, and they include representatives from all three groups:
- Rackspace, as a service provider, is joined by such companies as Peer1 and Internap.
- NASA, as an enterprise, is joined by NTT, Dell and Intel.
- Cloud technology providers run the gamut from Cloud.com and Cloud Scaling to Intalia, CirraScale and many more.
It's the wealth of technology companies in the community that most impresses. That's where the initial development push is going to come from. That's where the "volunteers" who will improve the code base will most likely work. With so many on board, Bexar should be cooler than an ice house in the shade.
While OpenStack is working with NASA, entry into the rest of the government is controlled by the General Services Administration, which is just now ramping up the process of offering infrastructure as a service, under government security standards.
UPDATE: Those OpenStack attendees who don't go for TexMex should check out Schilo's. San Antonio is a lot more German than y'all think.