From the ‘Doing the Neutron Dance’ files:
Technology nomenclature is always a ‘funny’ business. Case in point, the soon to be renamed OpenStack Quantum networking project.
I first heard about/wrote about Quantum in 2011as part of the OpenStack Diablo release cycle. It’s a brilliant idea, distill the core elements needed for Networking-as-a-Service in the cloud down to its most base – or quantum – components. Then have that abstraction available via APIs into which networking vendors/services can plug-in.
In 2011, the term SDN wasn’t the hype-cycle it is today – otherwise perhaps this project could have simply been called OpenStack SDN.
In any event, at the OpenStack Summit in Portland earlier this year – the direction was taken to start to replace the name OpenStack Quantum, simply with – OpenStack Networking. Apparently there is some naming (copyright?) confusion that might be associated with the name Quantum.
So I was a bit surprised to learn that the name OpenStack Networking isn’t sticking either. Starting with the upcoming Havana release, the new name for Quantum networkingis now Neutron.
Why?
I don’t know – I was just starting to get used to calling it OpenStack Networking too – but ‘pet’ names that aren’t purely generic (ie. calling your cat – cat) certainly do have their value.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.