Rackspace Releases Cloud Stack As Open Source 65
zerocool^ writes "Techcrunch is reporting that Rackspace is open-sourcing their cloud computing technologies, under the name OpenStack. Rackspace has chosen to release under the Apache 2.0 license. The initial release encompasses the cloud object storage and cloud virtual server management suites. Along with this release, NASA is contributing technology from its Nebula Cloud Platform. Early partners include Intel, Dell, and Citrix."
All up in the Cloud. (Score:5, Interesting)
Lot's of little boxes with AMD and Intel chips. No more big Iron. That is the dream. We aren't there yet as we still have an app or two that needs a $1,100,000 Sun box to run but this is where our data center is headed, A great pile of little servers and no concern if any one or two of them keels over.
Posted from the chilly Data Center of a Phone Company/ISP.
RPC Service Layer is very slim (Score:2, Interesting)
ok, but what is it? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why is it that any article about something "cloud"y doesn't tell me what is actually being sold. Could someone give me a functional overview of what this software achieves, perhaps putting into the context of similar software? Thank you.
(I haven't interacted with Rackspace since some fairly poorly supported dedicated server hosting about 8 years ago!)
Linux Cloud Computing (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:video (Score:4, Interesting)
Am I the only one that wants to stab my head with a fork whenever someone starts talking about "cloud" technology? Look, we've had compute and storage clusters for decades... tell us in precise technical terms what you're offering that's new and why it'd be suitable for general projects.
I think that's a disease that inflicts all companies catering to "enterprise" users.
Most people have at least a passing familiarity with Microsoft's nomenclature, where everything is constructed with an overlong string of polysyllabic names, sometimes (but not always) prefixed with "Microsoft". Service names are just one example. On *nix, you have daemons with one-word names that you stop|start|restart. Useage is as clear as its configuration and implementation. Ask a Windows admin about a given service, and he'll probably know its name, but how it works, how it's implemented and how it's configured will result in a blank stare.
Then, of course, there's the folks at VMware. Not only do they adopt the same enterprisey naming conventions that vendors like Microsoft use, but they go and change them to similarly nutty names, making no attempt to distinguish the new name from the old one. Their documentation, while reasonably complete, is bewildering to read. God help you if you are considering (or looking for) the "free" version of the "VMware vSphere Hypervisor".
What I can't figure out who is who these people think their audience is. Technical people want techncial answers. Instead, they get vague references to "technologies", a few hundred links to "knowledge base articles", and yet another frigging "control panel" to dumb down and obfuscate everything.
Re:Good licence, has anti-swpat clause (Score:3, Interesting)
> Everyone has a right to file a complaint [...] without any consequences.
That's true for violations of criminal law (the State v. X, e.g. murder), but not for civil offences (X v. Y, e.g. copyright dispute).
Your suggestion would invalidate every promise not to sue. The software industry uses loads of promises not to sue [swpat.org]. All the lawyers that help free software say that a promise not to sue is good. What makes you think you're right and they're wrong? (Sorry to use an "appeal to authority" reply, but your claim has about as much support among experts as the flat Earth theory does.)
Buzzword Express (Score:5, Interesting)
No, just take a few deep breaths and it'll go away.
"Cloud computing" is the current buzzword express. Like "thin clients" or Ubiquitous Java or AJAX or any number of technological trends before it, it's a way for non technical executive types to "lead" by grasping hold of something they don't understand. It's a handle for managers to move large concepts around with. It doesn't matter that it's not a significant advance in technology, science, or cybernetics. Its purpose is to pick an arbitrary spot for the industry to orbit around for a while.
Most importantly, it's a way for technical types to manipulate executives, managers, and marketers. Want to sell an idea or concept to a manager? Ride the buzzword express. Even if it's a no-brainer idea that should be done to keep the company afloat, and the managers are smart enough to realize that, the easiest way to sell it is to use buzzwords. This lets the executives know you're listening to them, gives them a warm fuzzy feeling of being in control, and distracts the marketing people.
The Buzzword Express even labels for you those technical wanna-bes and young idealistic programmer types who have plenty of enthusiasm and not much real world experience. Just listen for the buzzwords...anyone taking them seriously can't be worth too much face time. It helps you weed out the riff-raff.
The only cost is that you sometimes are forced to listen to announcements about it. Just keep breathing...
Re:Linux Cloud Computing (Score:2, Interesting)
I have been using the rackspace linux cloud computing platform for just under a year and i have to say that it is pretty darn cool.
if this software has every feature that i currently get when buying access (like web front end for dealing with instances.. and the API etc..) it will surely be welcome to some opensource folks.
Re:All up in the Cloud. (Score:3, Interesting)
May I ask: what's your opinion on the TCO of "lots of little boxes" vs Big Iron, especially in terms of energy consumption and maintenance?
This depends on your specific situation and the specific application and hardware in question. Where we have replaced big iron with lots of little boxes, the total Electricity consumption was about the same. But that was mostly because of age. Newer machines do more per watt consumed.
The savings come from increased reliability and reduced hardware cost. I.e. The Million Dollar Sun box mentioned in my initial post would be replaced by about a dozen $5,000 Dell Servers. This won't happen anytime soon however as the software is not written for the cloud and porting it is none trivial.