OpenStack predicts the rebirth of the cloud services market, flexibility must come first

    Tuesday, November 4, Paris, The Assembly Palace. OpenStack Summit, report by OpenStack COO, Mark Collier. Under such fairly ordinary circumstances, a new turning point in the life of one of the largest IT corporations in the world, Amazon Web Services (AWS), was marked. Mark Collier made a small artistic deviation before presenting his report, presenting an excerpt from the final scene of the cult film from director Stanley Kubrick 2001: Space Odyssey, shot back in 1968. The main character of the picture - the decrepit grandfather, sprawled in bed, turns under the influence of an unknown force, a mysterious black monolith, into an unborn child. According to Mark, the scene shown perfectly describes the current situation and the changes that await AWS.



    “The black monolith is already in the room,” Mark began his speech. “The transforming monolith is now for Amazon that composite background against which the birth of a new phase of our (OpenStack) activity takes place.” At the moment, there are many cloud providers, including giant companies (Microsoft, Google), which also, according to Mark, resemble a sedentary old man, who comfortably settled in a rather comfortable market for providing cloud services. But this state of affairs cannot be eternal, and very soon we will witness dramatic transformations in the field of cloud services.



    “There will no longer be a single cloud strategy that is presented to motley customers,” Mark Collier said in a speech. One market participant is simply not able to carry out the overdue changes, the need for which is already urgently felt in the cloud services sector. At the same time, if we consider OpenStack Clouds (OSC), then within the framework of this structure it will be quite realistic to implement such innovations.

    “The choice of OSC as the main, global platform for innovations (in terms of flexibility in the provision of services) is now an obvious solution. Any other infrastructure platform, even if we consider, say, a giant like AWS, cannot ensure an even distribution of its capacities on a global scale, ”said Mark, while demonstrating a world map on which 20 OpenStack Clouds nodes are marked, and only about AWS cloud centers are represented in half of the regions covered, where OSC was born in its time. For OSC itself, the current state of affairs can become truly significant, significant, so that finally this largely virtual organization can make itself widely known.

    The contradictions of the two platforms




    Although OSC makes extensive use of the AWS infrastructure, the differences between these organizations are significant. AWS is an integral part of one corporation, which provides a limited set of services related to cloud services, based on its own infrastructure platform. At the same time, OSC - is a cloud-based structure, the functioning of which is based on the principles of open source code, and its current form is due to intra-industry cooperation of a number of companies. OpenStack at the moment is a completely self-sufficient service, it is already widely used both for solving the most trivial tasks and for creating closed cloud services with wide computing capabilities on its basis.

    The cloud ambitions of companies such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, provide a favorable competitive environment for OSC and may also indicate that OSC is not just a companion company of any larger player in the cloud services market, but it is its full party. Using the strengths of existing companies, placing their computing power on the sites of various operators, the company has proved not only its independence, but also showed a competitive business model.



    Already, potential users of cloud services are faced with a difficult choice, so why give your preference? Will it be AWS or OSC, or else some of the many market participants?

    OpenStack Foundation Director Mark Koller sincerely believes that finally came the turning point, the rebirth of the services market, which will lead to the new level of OSC, which he, in fact, represents. At the same time, his words could have seemed somewhat contradictory to everything said above: “I am ready to admit that, despite some points, Amazon is an innovative and very promising company.” But let's deal with this in more detail.

    OpenStack gives you wide freedom of choice


    In the already described situation, when a potential client is faced with a choice, peering intently at the clouds, where can he place his data, the obvious advantage of OSC will, of course, be the flexibility of the cloud hardware, deployed to solve client tasks. "One size is not suitable for everyone, but it will be enough for many," said Wes Jossey, chief operating officer of Tapjoy, a mobile app development company.



    A Tapjoy spokesperson’s words can be especially valuable as the company is in fact a classic client of cloud server services. Moreover, the company has been using the services of both services for a considerable time, posting its data with both AWS and OpenStack. Tapjoy began its formation, collaborating with AWS services, but for the past four months, it has been using Open Stack services, placing its data on their engine.

    In fact, only seven “modern” configurations are now available to AWS users. Jesse noted that while designing his OpenStack cloud, he was quite impressed with the number of possible configurations that were available to him. “We built exactly what we wanted to get from the very beginning. The result coincided with those expectations that were formed both to the structure of the cloud and even to specific components of the equipment, which made it possible to obtain the ideal ratio of productivity at the processor and RAM level. "

    Thunderclouds


    Although the flexibility of the cloud structure from OSC has become its plus, the claimed platform also has weaknesses. Problems on OSC can be encountered by users posting long-term or highly loaded projects.
    “Running any cloud service is not a trivial task in itself,” said Bill Hilf, senior vice president of Helion, an HP cloud division. “This is a real investment. All this requires real time, and it is impossible to do without serious analytics to solve the tasks. "

    Most of Helion's business revolves around OpenStack. Bill also noted that there is currently a lack of flexibility in cloud services, and this applies not only to Amazon, but also to Microsoft and Google.



    “The large scale of open cloud services makes them convenient for working in them, but they are not effective for all tasks. If you are faced with the challenge of broadcasting the World Cup or the Olympics, Amazon Web Services might be your ideal choice. But in the event that the clouds are engaged in the processing of everyday processes without significant peak loads, and even with a minimum budget, your choice should fall on OpenStack Clouds or something similar to it, ”Bill summed up his report.

    Eight Differences Between OpenStack and AWS


    1. AWS is a more integrated system, while OpenStack is a set of loosely interconnected programs that require more in-depth administration knowledge to configure.
    2. The number of actual users for AWS is in the thousands, for OpenStack the indicators are much more modest, but the trend shows that the number of users of the OpenStack platform is steadily increasing, this is directly related to the deployment of the Rackspace cloud service on its basis.
    3. Due to the long work in the services market, AWS has a much larger number of additional services, when compared with OpenStack
    4. The choice of third-party tools for working with AWS is also wider than when working with OpenStack



    5. OpenStack has thousands of developers around the world, which can be decisive on the evolution of this platform. Further AWS enhancement in the hands of one corporation.
    6. Company partners. OpenStack works with Rackspace and HP, AWS maintains close contact with the Eucaliptus cloud service.
    7. The rate of evolution. OpenStack, although it has existed for more than 3 years, is still continuing to work on all of its services. In AWS, services are developed and marketed much faster.
    8. And of course, OpenStack open source code, which you can use on your own servers, or purchase ready-made solutions from the supplier. AWS is a closed system, and payment for the use of their services is tied to the time frame for its use.

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