From the ‘OpenStack Reality Check’ files:
Despite claims from VMware that OpenStack is currently immature, vendors including Canonical (lead sponsor of Ubuntu Linux) are seeing significant demand.
Canonical is particularly well positioned for OpenStack deployments since they’ve been the base/reference implementation for the open source cloud platform for at least a year at this point. That gives Ubuntu a nice head start on every other Linux vendor (all of whom, now support OpenStack).
“We see huge interest in OpenStack right now, both from cloud providers and from private enterprises,” Chris Kenyon, VP of Sales and Business Development at Canonical, told me. “We’re dealing with many enterprise customers who are bringing up OpenStack clouds now and they are assessing how they migrate existing workload across to it.”
Big names are also backing Ubuntu’s OpenStack efforts too. HP is basing its’ OpenStack cloud on Ubuntu as is AT&T and Ericsson.
While some see OpenStack as a future opportunity, for Canonical the opportunity is significantly more immediate.
“There is lots of real interest in OpenStack now,” Kenyon stressed.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.