Project Maturity

OpenStack is the cloud platform of choice for enterprises and service providers because it ideally combines cloud-specific software development with optimized enterprise applications.

With just one set of application programming interfaces (APIs), OpenStack integrates hardware-only systems, virtual machines, and container structures.

OpenStack Mitaka was developed and implemented by an international community of 2336 developers, operators and users from 293 organizations.

Since OpenStack has now been on the market for almost six years, its core is generally considered to be mature and stable. As a result, the OpenStack community has recently focused primarily on making the software easier to deploy, use and scale.

Additional default values

The Mitaka release includes numerous enhancements that simplify and improve the daily tasks of cloud operators and administrators.

One of the highlights is the simplified configuration of OpenStack Compute (Nova): With additional default values, fewer options need to be selected manually.

The Keystone identity module has also been significantly simplified: the process of setting up the identity management functions of a cloud network (installation, launch, authentication, distribution of tokens, etc.), which consists of several steps, has been significantly shortened to just one step.

Another example of improved handling in Mitaka is Neutron, which now offers better networking at Layer 3 and supports distributed virtual routers (DVR).

Mitaka also offers numerous advancements in OpenStack Cloud scalability. For example, Heat's Convergence Engine, introduced in the Liberty release, can handle higher loads and more complex actions for horizontal scaling while delivering better performance for stateless operations.

Similarly, Fernet tokens now increase the number of API operations supported in the Identity module Keystone.

Developers have also made great progress on Cells v2, another feature introduced with Liberty that supports horizontal scaling of OpenStack compute clouds.

Mitaka clearly demonstrates the community's commitment to improving the experience for cloud users, both cloud operators and end users who are developing or deploying applications on cloud systems.

For example, a unified OpenStack client provides a consistent set of commands for creating resources, so end users do not have to learn the many intricacies of each service API.

In addition, Mitaka now offers more support for software development kits (SDKs) in a whole range of different languages.

Further enhancing the user experience for application developers will be the new "give me a network" feature in Neutron, which is currently under development.

This function will perform all the following steps with a single action: Creating a network, linking to a server, assigning an IP address, and allowing network access. Individual elements of this new function are already implemented in Mitaka.

80 percent of IT executives in Germany are moving or planning to move to an OpenStack private cloud, according to a study commissioned by Suse Linux.

The majority of respondents are concerned about installation difficulties, possible vendor lock-in, and a possible lack of OpenStack skills in the market.

"The results of the study speak a clear, positive language: companies trust OpenStack"

says Michael Jores, Regional Director Central Europe at Suse.

"Users are concerned about how best to integrate and manage their cloud infrastructure. So Suse has offered a production-ready OpenStack cloud solution from the start to help users with their concerns and challenges.

We work closely with the OpenStack project and technology partners to provide the greatest flexibility and choice, as well as training and support, to work with enterprises to get the most out of their private cloud investments."

The study shows the preferences, adoption levels and challenges of large companies when moving to a private cloud. Overall, the following picture emerges: Private clouds have arrived in corporations. 84 percent of German companies have already implemented at least one private cloud - with an average of two.

"OpenStack Powered"

The OpenStack developer community will be releasing the first Mitaka-based products and services as early as the coming weeks and months.

In the OpenStack Marketplace, users can find distributions and cloud service providers that are labeled "OpenStack Powered" and meet the interoperability tests.

Adoption has increased significantly again in the past year. A wide variety of implementations, including larger ones, have been realized because many organizations have realized how flexible and practical OpenStack is.

OpenStack supports companies in a very special way that want to drive "two-track" - i.e. still use traditional IT systems on the one hand, but also build modern, agile systems on the other.

Shorter software development cycles set them apart, give them a competitive edge, and enable them to deliver value to their customers faster.