Cloud services provider Rackspace Hosting has announced OpenStack, an open source platform that it hopes will drive the adoption of cloud computing while removing perceived barriers such as vendor lock-in.
Rackspace will be making the code for its Cloud Files and Cloud Servers open source and has signed up a number of technology partners to the project, including Dell, AMD and Citrix, while space agency NASA will also be involved via its Nebula Cloud Platform.
OpenStack will feature a fully-distributed object store based on Rackspace Cloud Files, which is available from today at the project’s website while a second component, a compute-provisioning engine based on the NASA Nebula cloud technology and Rackspace Cloud Servers technology, is expected to be made available later this year.
Speaking to CBR about the announcement Fabio Torlini, head of cloud EMEA for Rackspace, said that the project should drive adoption of cloud computing. "That’s the beauty of open source; anyone can download the code and get involved and there is no doubt that it will drive acceleration of cloud computing."
Torlini added that he believes this is a unique offering on the market – Amazon’s EC2 platform is similar but is held back by being a closed platform, he said.
The collaboration with NASA was built out of the space agency’s need for massive storage capabilities. The company had been looking at heading to the cloud for a while but hit a few roadblocks along the way, Torlini said.
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"Modern scientific computation requires ever increasing storage and processing power delivered on-demand," said Chris Kemp, NASA’s chief technology officer for IT. "To serve this demand, we built Nebula, an infrastructure cloud platform designed to meet the needs of our scientific and engineering community. NASA and Rackspace are uniquely positioned to drive this initiative based on our experience in building large scale cloud platforms and our desire to embrace open source."
"We are founding the OpenStack initiative to help drive industry standards, prevent vendor lock-in and generally increase the velocity of innovation in cloud technologies," said Lew Moorman, president, cloud and CSO at Rackspace. "We are proud to have NASA’s support in this effort. Its Nebula Cloud Platform is a tremendous boost to the OpenStack community. We expect ongoing collaboration with NASA and the rest of the community to drive more-rapid cloud adoption and innovation, in the private and public spheres."
Alongside Dell, Citrix and AMD, a number of other companies have signed up to the project, with many indicating that the open nature of OpenStack was the main attraction.
"We believe that an open Cloud is the future of cloud computing. The internet would not be what it is today, had it not been built on open and interoperable standards. The cloud’s success will be driven by a global connected community delivering applications and media using a cloud that fosters creativity and openness. A truly open cloud will encourage tomorrow’s innovators to innovate today," said Phil Worms of iomart Group.
