In the Open Source Cloud Race, Support Will Differentiate the Players
November 4, 2011
Open source cloud computing solutions are proliferating, as businesses and organizations demand flexible solutions for deploying public and private cloud applications. Among these solutions, OpenStack remains one of the highest profile examples, with vendors ranging from Hewlett-Packard to Dell to Citrix supporting it. Increasingly, OpenStack will face off with Eucalyptus Systems, which we’ve covered since its inception here at OStatic. In a piece for InfoWorld, Savio Rodrigues makes some good points about why Eucalyptus Systems may win organizations over and outpace OpenStack in the long run…
"History has shown that when an open source project is dealing with a valuable layer of the software stack, that project has tended to be controlled by a single vendor that can directly make money from the project. (The term "value" represents the differentiation that can be monetized.) Although multiple implementations or distributions may result from the project, a single vendor becomes the dominant provider in the space."
Rodrigues points to Red Hat (in the case of Linux) and MySQL as examples of how this phenomenon plays out. Now, some would argue that the fact that more than sheer number of vendors backing OpenStack gives it a leg up. For example, InfoWorld’s Eric Knorr previously wrote:
"OpenStack, co-created by IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) provider Rackspace and NASA, seems to have the most momentum, with more than 80 vendors now backing it, including Canonical, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Intel, and Microsoft. Plus, OpenStack is available under Apache 2.0, the least restrictive open source license."
However, the key to all of this will be support–true support, expensive support. Enterprises, especially, will favor a platform-level solution when it’s clear that they’ll get completely reliable support. History shows that, and Rodrigues’ Red Hat citation is a perfect example. Red Hat has found success by supporting open source platform-level software, and the company carefully tends to its top support contract renewers, all of whom tend to sign up for new support subscriptions like clockwork.
In the cloud computing arena, yes, businesses and organizations want flexible solutions for their deployments, but they will demand top-notch support and this is a known quantity at Eucalyptus Systems. Rodrigues points out that Eucalyptus has grown from 15 to 70 employees over the past year, and it’s likely that the company will have to add many more employees on the support side of the business over time.
Support is a giant cost center for companies that provide it, but companies that do it well succeed. In the case of many pure open source projects, lack of support and complete documentation is often cited by IT administrators when asked why they don’t favor this or that FOSS solution.
Many of the companies "backing" OpenStack are contributing code or pursuing other forms of community contribution, but a unified, robust support effort is what will really make a difference. Absent that, bet on Eucalyptus Systems.