With its OpenStack-based cloud coming online, Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier says the company can take on Amazon Web Services for the biggest of big accounts, provided those accounts want the sort of value-add service Rackspace provides. Read more »
The first version of the CloudStack open-source cloud platform carrying the Apache Foundation imprimatur is now available for download. The new “Incubating release” 4.0.0 integrates CloudBridge Amazon API support and support for Ceph and Caringo storage options. Read more »
Another busy week for Amazon Web Services which added new compute instance types, cut prices on others, and upped the limit on provisioned IOPS for EBS volumes. Amazon is getting busier as more public cloud options come on line. Read more »
Rackspace is busy building a Hadoop service, giving the company one more avenue to compete with cloud kingpin Amazon Web Services. However, the two services — along with several others on the market — highlight just how different seemingly similar cloud services can be. Read more »
It was a busy week in cloud, bookended by Amazon and Google App Engine outages. In between those snafus, OpenNebula updated its cloud and stealthy startup Yottabyte launched technology that it says will let companies yoke commodity hardware into clouds of their own. Read more »
The fear of a US-owned cloud company turning over personal data of a European citizen to the feds is still a factor impacting growth of cloud in Europe, according to an Orange Business Services exec speaking at Structure Europe. Read more »
Cisco and CA are working with Citrix to support its CloudPlatform implementation of CloudStack. The news, out of Citrix Synergy in Barcelona, comes as a raft of OpenStack news hits the wire. Read more »
Microsoft snarfs up StorSimple as an easy way to get customer data into its Windows Azure storage cloud. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, signals increasing competition between Microsoft, Google, Amazon and the OpenStack crew for customer data. Read more »
Many cloud providers say they are open, or based on open-source technology, but in order to be truly open a service has to be backed by a community of users who contribute to making the technology better, says the founder of OpenNebula Read more »
If there isn’t an OpenStack cloud you fancy, wait a second, there’s more — a lot more — in the pipeline. Cloudscaling, Metacloud and Dreamhost will all preview their take on the open-source cloud this week at the OpenStack Summit in San Diego. Read more »
The nation’s biggest broadband and cable provider is joining the OpenStack effort, just in time for it’s big coming out party in San Diego next week. Comcast is also working with Cisco on applications that can build on that open-source infrastructure. Read more »
A major cloud trend over the past decade has been open source, but at present there is no one standard all providers obey. But anyone looking for a longer-term alternative to AWS now has two exciting new prospects: OpenStack and OpenShift. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
OpenNebula, the European-rooted open-source cloud platform is used by more businesses and in more countries than many might expect. At the ripe old age of 7, OpenNebula remains a quiet force compared to say, OpenStack. Read more »
If the OpenStack Summit is anywhere near as dramatic as the events leading up to it, it will be a really good show. As the open-source cloud effort transitions from a Rackspace-dominated move to a true community effort, here are 8 big questions. Read more »
vCider’s virtual networking smarts will help Cisco build distributed cloud infrastructure that ties into its own Open Networking Environment. The move is seen as a counter to VMware’s acquisition of Nicira. Read more »
Buyer beware when it comes to adopting OpenStack — or any open-source cloud — according to a newly released Gartner report. Long story short: evaluate OpenStack just like you’d assess a commercial offering, cautions analyst Lydia Leong. Read more »
Why use open source for building and designing cloud? Because open-source software stacks offer a huge amount of customizeability so the cloud you build actually does what you need it to do — and without huge licensing fees. Read more »
The OpenStack Foundation is official as of Wednesday with a new 24-person board, $10 million in funding, 5,600 members, and a mandate to promote flexible open-source cloud infrastructure. Question: Will the foundation echo the success of Eclipse or the failure of OpenOffice? Read more »
Mark Shuttleworth, a superstar in the open-source world and the force behind Ubuntu Linux, is funding Inktank to the tune of $1 million. DreamHost spun out Inktank last year to help get customers up and running on Ceph open-source storage technology. Read more »
OpenStack is hot, but determining which companies are best poised to capitalize on its promise is hard to do. Prabhakar Gopalan assesses what hardware vendors, software vendors and service will have to do if they want to be among the big OpenStack winners. Read more »
After weeks of back and forth and considerable anxiety, VMware, Intel and NEC are now Gold members of the OpenStack Foundation. The news comes out of Friday afternoon’s OpenStack board meeting. Read more »
Basho says its Riak CS object store will fit nicely into the CloudStack open-source cloud platform. As service providers and enterprises look for Amazon S3 compatible storage, entries like Riak CS and DreamHost’s new Ceph-based store could be viable options. Read more »
Nebula CEO and co-founder Chris Kemp says the OpenStack cloud company will use its new-found money to hire engineers, expand its private beta and build out its new Menlo Park, CA headquarters. Comcast Ventures led the $25 million Series B round. Read more »
Well into the cloud computing era, the definitions of what constitutes an “open cloud,” and how to select the right technology are still a mystery to potential users. And, consumers are still in the dark when it comes to the concept of cloud. Read more »
SUSE’s Alan Clark and Cisco’s Lew Tucker are the chairman and vice chairman of the fledgling OpenStack Foundation. They’ve got a lot on their plate as the foundation has to wean itself from Rackspace and set its own course. Read more »
It’s hurry up and wait when it comes to VMware’s bid to become part of OpenStack’s inner circle. Its application for Gold membership status — along with applications from Intel and NEC — will have to wait for the next Open Stack Foundation meeting. Read more »
Rackspace is buying Mailgun for its email-enabling APIs, which should come in handy for developers wanting to build and host applications using Rackspace’s shiny new OpenStack-based cloud infrastructure. Terms were not disclosed. Read more »
VMware’s decision to join the OpenStack Foundation could be a huge or not-so-huge deal. Some see the move as a way to outflank Citrix, others say VMware’s Nicira, DynamicOps buys signaled a desire to at least appear more open in the era of cloud computing. Read more »
Never say never. VMware is about to join the OpenStack Foundation, a group initially backed by other industry giants as a counterweight to VMware’s server virtualization dominance. Intel and NEC are also on deck to join as Gold OSF members. Read more »
Rackspace CTO John Engates said the company’s new monitoring service, based on its Cloudkick acquisition two years ago, will give customers a better way to monitor the performance of their cloud resources. As more companies consider cloud deployment, tools like these are becoming essential. Read more »
Two weeks after launching its public OpenStack cloud, Rackspace follows suit with its private cloud implementation. The availability of both options will make it easier for customers interested in running hybrid cloud for their workloads, the company said. Read more »
The company behind the enterprise Linux market leader has now made preview code of its OpenStack cloud platform available for download. The final release is due next year. Rackspace, Internap, HP and others already have OpenStack deployed. Is IBM next? Read more »
OpenStack has had a great week with eBay coming out as a user and Rackspace rebranding around the open source cloud project, but life isn’t all good in OpenStack world. There are still plenty of questions over its governance and development models that keep skepticism strong. Read more »
With its OpenStack cloud now ready for its closeup, Rackspace is rebranding itself to emphasize open cloud as opposed to its hosting roots. Company CMO Suaad Sait said the company will continue to stress “fanatical support” as a key differentiator. Read more »
The Rackspace Cloud is now based fully on the open source OpenStack platform. I recently spoke with CEO Lanham Napier, who discussed how his company doesn’t necessarily see Amazon Web Services as a direct competitor, and how OpenStack is changing his company’s entire business. Read more »
Amazon is offering customers unprecedented deals to stick with its cloud services. Some big companies can get annual “true up” deals while many report incentives to use reserved, rather than on-demand, instances. And Amazon is making an effort to keep startups in the fold. Read more »
A cadre of OpenStack developers is leaving Rackspace, taking their talents to Nebula, another OpenStack backer. Most of those leaving came to RackSpace via its acquisition of Anso Labs, in February, 2011. Read more »
VMware has made two big acquisitions this month, both focusing in part on the ability to work with competitive hypervisor and cloud computing software. The company seems to get that the future is in making it easy for customers to choose. Read more »
Organizations are coping with the challenge of processing unprecedented volumes of data. However, the processes involved with using a large cluster to run applications like Hadoop are error-prone. So IT managers are turning to cluster-management solutions to automate tasks associated with cluster creation, management and maintenance. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A new ARM-based OpenStack cloud comes online this week, courtesy of HP, Calxeda and Canonical. The new “TryStack” facility gives developers who want to test out OpenStack clouds another flavor to try. The news comes out of the OSCON conference this week. Read more »
