Nicira co-founder Martin Casado on OpenStack Quantum and what’s next in cloud networking

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Shamus McGillicuddy.

With the Folsom release of OpenStack, networking pros now have OpenStack Quantum, an industry-standard, open application programming interface for cloud networking orchestration. Using the OpenStack Quantum API, software and hardware companies can create solutions to solve the problems of network operations in cloud computing and highly virtualized data centers. In this Q&A, Martin Casado, Nicira co-founder and influential OpenStack figure, discusses the impact Quantum will have on cloud networking and network orchestration.

What is the significance of Quantum in the Folsom release?

Martin Casado: Quantum is really just a vendor-neutral, industry-standard interface. The implications are significant, because if you build the cloud and you use Quantum, you’ve decoupled the operations and orchestration from the actual mechanics of the networking side…

When OpenStack was created, there was an industry-standard interface for compute called ‘Nova,’ [and interfaces for storage], but networking wasn’t a first-class citizen. Networking was hardcoded in a piece of Nova. Quantum makes the networking subsystem a pluggable, modular, standard interface that’s treated as a first-class citizen. Now [cloud operators and customers] can run any number of virtual networking solutions … and know it will slot in and work within the greater OpenStack environment…

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