OpenStack Summit in Paris Puts Open-Source Cloud on Display

by Sean Michael Kerner

Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation, detailed during his opening day keynote how the open-source cloud platform is driving the software-defined economy.

Among the users that discussed OpenStack deployment was car maker BMW. A BMW i8 supercar was driven onto the OpenStack keynote stage and then moved to the OpenStack exhibitor area, where it was displayed.

The CERN particle physics lab was also among the OpenStack users that discussed cloud deployment at the Paris Summit. Tim Bell, infrastructure services manager at CERN, detailed how his group is using OpenStack to solve some of the biggest mysteries in the universe.

Weston Jossey, head of operations at Tapjoy, discussed in a keynote how his company is still using Amazon for public cloud deployment, while leveraging an OpenStack deployment for its private cloud needs.

Rajeev Khanna, vice president of Global Infrastructure Services at Expedia, explained in his keynote how Expedia also uses both Amazon and OpenStack. Khanna also made reference to the complexity of a private cloud deployment as a “conga line” of different technologies and services that need to be deployed.

Robert Clark, lead security architect at Hewlett-Packard Cloud Services, explained the DREAD approach to threat modeling at the Summit. DREAD is an acronym for Damage potential, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected users and Discoverability.

A staple at every OpenStack Summit is the job posting board where vendors attempt to attract potential candidates.

The OpenStack Marketplace provides vendors with the opportunity to engage with potential buyers and to hand out information.

The OpenStack Summit provided attendees with the opportunity to watch Star Trek while enjoying lunch.

While the cloud is often thought of as being about virtualization software, it still requires hardware infrastructure. Among the vendors showing hardware at the OpenStack Summit was IBM with its latest Power8 servers.

A key part of the OpenStack event was the Design Summit, where developers gathered to discuss the next major release, known as Kilo, due out in the first half of 2015.

Among the many evening and offsite events was a night at the D’orsay Museum, sponsored by Canonical and Juniper Networks.

While OpenStack was held indoors to talk about the virtual cloud, many attendees took the time to step outside and see real clouds in Paris and visit the world famous Eiffel Tower.

The next OpenStack Summit is scheduled to take place in Vancouver, British Columbia, May 18-22, 2015.