Dell’s Crowbar installation-and-configuration tool now works VMware’s Cloud Foundry. With servers fast becoming low-margin commodities thanks to the push toward micro servers, Dell is doing its best to make deploying the software that inspired the new generation of servers a breeze. Read more »
The great things about open source software stacks is that they’re free and they work. The not-so-great thing is that — like many open source projects — they can be difficult to configure and manage. Luckily, hardware vendors are stepping in to fill the void. Read more »
HP has joined OpenStack, the open-source cloud software project led by Rackspace. HP joins fellow IT heavyweights Dell, Cisco, Intel and Citrix as OpenStack contributors, which should help ensure that OpenStack is supported by a wide variety of enterprise hardware and software products. Read more »
Former NASA CTO Chris Kemp left his post in the spring to pursue a startup venture, and on Wednesday morning he introduced his new company, Nebula. It’s selling an OpenStack-based appliance for managing scale-out cloud deployments, and is backed by premier talent and investors. Read more »
On Tuesday Dell announced a reference architecture, open-source software and services offering designed to make deploying an OpenStack-based cloud as easy as following directions. Called the Dell OpenStack Cloud solution, the collection of tools shows that OpenStack will be a driving force in the private-cloud space. Read more »
Open-source cloud computing project OpenStack turned one this week, and cloud backup provider Backblaze freely shared detailed specifications for a storage device capable of holding 135 terabytes of data. Open-source options for everything from servers and data centers to clouds and application platforms are growing more robust. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
[OpenStack] looks not only like an open-source alternative to Amazon Web Services and VMware vCloud in the public Infrastructure as a Service space, but also a democratizing force in the private-cloud software space. As my colleague Derrick Harris suggests, the open-source cloud-computing project OpenStack has come a […] Read more »
Something I thought about a lot while writing about OpenStack yesterday is how much it democratized access to cloud computing in just a year. But OpenStack is just one example of how information technology, overall, is undergoing a period of arguably unprecedented democratization. Read more »
Big data and Platform-as-a-Service offerings highlighted the second quarter, suggesting that we can expect to see a shift in enterprise IT practices around application development and analytics very soon. On the PaaS front, we saw new projects like DotCloud and Cloud Foundry gain incredible momentum in just a few short months. The big-data activity ranged from major new Hadoop vendors to heavy investment in flash storage that will speed the serving of data to processing engines. In other areas, we saw an uptick in cloud-computing plans from large vendors, OpenStack continued to mature and pick up both contributors and users, and Facebook caught our eye by launching an open-source project around the designs for its specialized servers and data centers. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Salesforce.com, IBM, Heroku and Calxeda. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
OpenStack, the open-source cloud-computing software project founded by Rackspace and NASA, launched a year ago today. It has been a busy year for the project, which appears to have grown much faster than even its founders expected it would, and it’s only picking up steam. Read more »
The sport of mixed martial arts combines the multiple disciplines of wrestling, boxing, and jiu jitsu into one combat sport. The cloud battle between VMware and Citrix is a metaphor for two highly trained MMA fighters stepping into the ring after a two-year training camp. Read more »
There’s little doubt that VMware will continue to maintain its lead as a virtualization supplier in the short run, but doing so over the long run is tricky business. So says Art Wittmann at InformationWeek about VMware’s vSphere 5 offering, updated this week. Despite the bolstering […] Read more »
Citrix Systems has bought hot private-cloud startup Cloud.com, a move that immediately makes Citrix a leader in the quest to help companies build on-premise Infrastructure-as-a-Service clouds à la Amazon EC2. Cloud.com brings an impressive list of customers that includes Bechtel, GoDaddy and Zynga. Read more »
Piston Cloud Computing has launched with $4.5 million from True Ventures, Hummer Winblad and others in what is both a big deal for the relatively young OpenStack platform as well as an expected move by the founders of what became the code for OpenStack. Read more »
The future of the cloud is a programmable network with applications that are smarter about using resources, said Lew Tucker, VP and CTO of Cloud Computing for Cisco at Structure 2011 in San Francisco on Wednesday. Read more »
Cloud computing has grown from a pie-in-the-sky vision to a major IT movement over the past few years. As its promise has grown, though, so too has its scope. This report covers six key sectors in cloud computing: commodity Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enterprise IaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud storage and private clouds. We highlight the current state of each and provide informed insights into where they — and cloud computing in general — are headed. Much like any market in a still-evolving state, the infrastructure of the cloud-computing transition is still being built by startups, practitioners and even a big-name company or two. Companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Amazon, Nasuni, Terremark and Heroku. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Citrix today announced the first commercial distribution of the open source OpenStack cloud-computing software, which Citrix ix calling Project Olympus. It’s a bold move to announce an OpenStack distribution so early into the project’s existence, but Citrix must to something to combat bitter rival VMware. Read more »
Despite a lot of speculation lately about who’s winning the private-cloud race and what companies might be on the way out, it’s far too early to call the game in anyone’s favor. Adoption is picking up, but it’s nowhere near ubiquitous, so there’s plenty of time. Read more »
Managed service provider Internap has announced that it will be offering a public infrastructure-as-a-service cloud built atop the OpenStack platform. The service will be available in the third quarter of this year, and also features the option of running applications on VMware-based virtual infrastructure. Read more »
Rackspace has informed Slicehost customers that it will be shutting down the popular cloud-hosting service. Rackspace bought Slicehost in 2008 to serve as the foundation of its Rackspace Cloud business, but Rackspace now betting its cloud computing future on the OpenStack platform. Read more »
Cisco’s cloud computing ambitions might be judged by outsiders as being centered around selling servers and networking gear to cloud data centers, but recent developments show that such an assessment might not be entirely fair as Cisco comes around on open source software. Read more »
Two markets stand out above all else when looking at the first quarter of 2011: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — the epitome of cloud computing — and big data. Amazon Web Services continues to lead the IaaS space in terms of customers and innovation, while Rackspace, buoyed by momentum around OpenStack, will be its primary competitor for mainstream customers. In the big data space, there are so many players and terms floating about it’s difficult for outsiders to get a handle on who’s who and what’s what, though such activity validates the technologies. Other developments this quarter included HP’s impending presence in the cloud computing and big data spaces and the realization that Intel won’t be left to die if low-power servers based on x86 processors catch on like the buzz late last year suggests they will. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Microsoft, Cloudera, SeaMicro and Facebook. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The latest OpenStack code release, dubbed Cactus, is now available and generally capable of running within enterprise data centers, but underlying the project’s progress are concerns over its true commitment to the open source ethos. Read more »
Cisco said it plans to buy newScale, a software provider that allows more control and visibility inside a compute cloud. The deal highlights the rise in M&A activity among cloud vendors as well as the need for more accountability in corporate cloud environments. Read more »
Rackspace is now offering official support services for the OpenStack cloud platform under the moniker of Rackspace Cloud Builders. Until now, companies wishing to deploy OpenStack-based cloud offerings had to either rely on community members for informal support or seek out third-party consultants. Read more »
Rackspace is opening the OpenStack board to participation by a greater number of contributors. Issues arose after Rackspace bought Anso Labs last month, giving Rackspace an overwhelming majority of Project Oversight Committee seats, leading some to suggest Rackspace was making a play to have complete control. Read more »
During a phone call this morning, Rackspace Cloud President Lew Moorman flatly dismissed allegations that his company bought Anso Labs to gain extra power within the OpenStack community, and acknowledged that Rackspace is in talks with Microsoft about providing a managed version of Windows Azure. Read more »
Rackspace reported cloud revenues of $31.4 million during the quarter, up approximately 17.1 percent over the previous quarter, and bringing the company’s total 2010 cloud revenue to $100.7 million. Perhaps more telling, though, is the increasing percentage of overall revenue attributed to cloud computing. Read more »
The Rackspace- and NASA-led OpenStack project released the code for its “Bexar” release this morning, which brings a slew of new features, as well as proofs of concept from large enterprises and major new contributors, such as Cisco. With Bexar, OpenStack is ready for production environments. Read more »
The first non-Rackspace OpenStack-based cloud-storage service is in beta, but it’s just the first in what should be many products based on the open source cloud project. Internap’s XIPCloud Storage platform provides a self-service, web-based offering to complement the hosting providers existing dedicated storage offerings. Read more »
This year was rightfully advertised as the “Year of the Cloud.” The cloud computing landscape began to take shape in 2010, with providers honing their offerings, important issues surfacing to light and industry consolidation finally beginning to happen. In most areas, however, the action is likely ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It’s a big news Friday. On the NoSQL front, Microsoft is giving Membase and MongoDB some love, while CouchOne distances itself from the term. In the cloud world, there was another revenue prediction, Appistry and Dell teaming on cloud storage, and Eucalyptus potentially working with OpenStack. Read more »
The folks at Canonical have been trying to establish Ubuntu as the cloud OS. CEO Mark Shuttleworth underscored this mission during his keynote at the recent Ubuntu Developer Sumit, in which he noted full support for ARM-based servers, as well as for the OpenStack cloud platform. Read more »
In what could be considered a very big deal, Microsoft has joined the OpenStack community. According to the official announcement, Microsoft will provide technical guidance and assistance to startup Cloud.com to add Hyper-V support to its CloudStack offering. Cloud.com will develop the code for OpenStack integration. Read more »
The OpenStack project has released the full version of its open source cloud-computing platform, marking the debut of OpenStack Compute – the Rackspace-Cloud-Servers-meets-NASA-Nebula compute engine. This release is ready for testing and development, but the group expects a production-ready version by January. Read more »
In an effort to steal some attention away from VMware’s VMworld event starting today, Citrix is announcing that it will acquire VMLogix as an integral part of it’s efforts to create the ability for enterprises to utilize clouds without fears of vendors lock in. Read more »
NewScale, rPath and Eucalyptus Systems are working on a new self service, private cloud initiative that is likely to be announced on August 24. This new effort is going to an integrated offering that is targeting hybrid and private clouds. Read more »
This week, a group of technology companies, along with Nasa, launched a set of open source projects designed to give businesses and service providers an entire cloud computing platform. I’m all for openness, but it’s not too difficult to make the case that OpenStack won’t create ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
I’m all for openness, but as I discuss in my weekly column at GigaOM Pro, it’s do not too difficult to play devil’s advocate and make the case that open source cloud platform OpenStack won’t create true rivals for leading cloud providers or cloud software vendors. Read more »
OpenStack is an open source cloud project being backed by Rackspace and supported by NASA and two dozen other companies. Since the initial news was released, a lot of folks have been sharing their sentiments about the offering and why they think it is important. Read more »
