There’s been Essex, Folsom and Grizzly, and now there’s Havana. The next biannual release of OpenStack makes several major additions in workload orchestration and service delivery. All in all, 392 features have been added.
But some observers think OpenStack is evolving rapidly into something much more than just new features added to existing infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). They believe OpenStack is beginning to track Amazon Web Services and add platform-as-a-service (PaaS) features for rapid software development too. If so, OpenStack may start to command a broader body of interest as the basis for private cloud in the enterprise.
That may prove to be a topic at the next OpenStack Summit, to take place in Hong Kong Nov. 5-8. Open source is popular in China — no need to send more yuen to Microsoft — and the summit organizers hope the Chinese location will increase OpenStack’s profile there.
Of the IaaS features, a total of 20,000 patches have been added to upgrade previously basic services in OpenStack, such as metering for user chargeback or showback. Metering in previous releases “was limited,” conceded John Igoe, VP of private cloud at Rackspace. It’s been integrated into operations on a more thorough and supported level, said John Igoe, VP of private cloud at Rackspace, allowing managers to view more details around each individual user’s bill. Rackspace is an OpenStack contributor and host to one of the largest implementations of the open source software, Rackspace Cloud.