SAP users can't get around OpenStack in cloud computing

Whether they use the SAP Cloud Platform. Or if they have voted in favor of Hana and obtain computing services and Hana operation in the form of managed cloud services from an SAP hosting provider - for whatever purpose.

SAP customers may not want to deal with Hana infrastructure issues so much right now and are turning to SAP managed services partners. Quite a few such service providers who manage and administer Hana systems on behalf of customers use OpenStack to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) from their private managed cloud environment.

This is done by FIS ASP Hosting, for example, but also by Telekom - whereby apps in public cloud style are also offered via the Telekom Cloud. The core infrastructure basis here is also OpenStack.

The open source/OpenStack train is moving at breakneck speed, as underscored by the recent OpenStack Summit 2017 event held in Boston in May. It is simply the technology tool of choice when it comes to cloud infrastructures.

The OpenStack growth according to the event organizers in one year: a whopping 44 percent! It is also interesting to note that OpenStack is the only technology that is used almost equally for all dimensions of hybrid clouds: for private clouds, for public clouds and for managed cloud services.

Moreover, according to another finding, about 50 percent of the companies on the well-known Fortune list currently use OpenStack and thus open source.

Of course, every technology or solution based on it leaves constant room for improvement, further development or even innovation. That has always been the case in IT. OpenStack obviously needs to catch up at the moment: in the areas of certificates and interoperability in the multi-cloud use of OpenStack, for example.

The fact that the various OpenStack distributions available have different scopes of functions was also pointed out at the event with an audibly critical undertone. This is probably because comparability is only possible to a limited extent.

Regardless of this, OpenStack Enterprise users can rely on a permanently growing OpenStack solution offering (including support services, of course) for the various fields of application.

At the OpenStack Summit mentioned above, several providers presented specific products or further developments. Suse (monitoring solution), NetApp (storage), Veritas (security) and Dell/Rackspace (a kind of complete solution for private cloud use) did likewise.

The great importance of OpenStack can also be seen in how many so-called sponsors there are now and who is all involved. Both from the IT scene and on the user side.

Big companies like General Electric, AT&T, Verizon and Deutsche Telekom are among them. On the other hand - in addition to not-so-well-known open source specialists - practically all well-known IT players. From IBM, HPE and Huawei to Cisco, Fujitsu and NEC. But also SAP.

By now, word has probably reached the last corners of the SAP community that the Walldorf-based software group generally relies heavily on open source in general and on OpenStack in particular. This is true both internally and as a technological basis for the products and solutions SCP, HEC and the Hana-based S/4 Cloud.

Exciting insights into this were provided at the OpenStack Summit during a presentation by SAP experts on OpenStack deployment at SAP.

What is striking in any case is how large and far-reaching the use of OpenStack Enterprise has become at the Walldorf-based software group.