Open Source Fact and Fiction

Alan Shimel

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OpenStack Continues Momentum As AT&T Signs On

First US Telecom Provider To Join Project

By Alan Shimel on Tue, 01/10/12 - 9:23am.

. What's this?

OpenStack, the open source cloud architecture created by Rackspace and NASA (is there a more open source friendly US Government agency?), officially picked up another major supporter yesterday when Ma Bell herself, AT&T officially joined the project. AT&T becomes the first major US telecom provider to join the project, which already boasts over 140 corporate members.

According to the blog post from AT&T CTO John Donovan, AT&T has actually been working with the OpenStack community for over a year "and have already contributed a blueprint for a potential new function within OpenStack, focused on transactional task management." The company made the announcement at its annual AT&T Developer Summit in Las Vegas.

More than supporting and even contributing to OpenStack again according to Donovan, AT&T will also be offering OpenStack based cloud services "on dedicated infrastructure in three AT&T data centers today, with locations in Dallas, San Diego and Secaucus, New Jersey. We plan to more than double the number of our centers with open-source capabilities in 2012." I assume that when he says double the number of our centers with open source capabilities in 2012, he is referring to OpenStack and not to something like Linux based hosting.

Of course being a doubting Thomas myself, I always question whether a company of AT&T's girth can really grep open source. While many large companies including Cisco, Dell and HP have joined OpenStack, will AT&T really get "this open source thing"? What will their special sauce be? But heck, even Microsoft is part of the OpenStack community.

From the OpenStack side of the house, this is nothing but more good news. Besides obviously Rackspace, the project needs more data center operators to offer OpenStack. I wrote back last March about Equinix working with Rackspace to offer OpenStack test platforms.

The project is now in its 4th release called Diablo, which I also wrote about this past September. The progress has been impressive. It would appear that with the project continuing to pick up members, supporters and offerings, it is inevitable that it will become the de facto standard for cloud architecture.

But one word of caution, right now the battle for OpenStack is for the minds, hearts and fingers of developers and coders. Ultimately there adoption of OpenStack will determine the ultimate success of the project. Right now AT&T and the rest view OpenStack as a way to reach these all important developers. So as long as OpenStack is the choice of cloud developers the line forming to join the project will continue to grow.

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About Open Source Fact and Fiction

As co-founder and Managing Partner at The CISO Group, Alan Shimel is responsible for driving the vision and mission of the company. The CISO Group offers security consulting and PCI compliance management for the payment card industry. Prior to The CISO Group, Alan was the Chief Strategy Officer at StillSecure. Shimel was the public persona of StillSecure as it grew from start up to helping defend some of the largest and most sensitive networks in the world.

Shimel is an often-cited personality in the technology community and is a sought-after speaker at industry and government conferences and events. His commentary about the state of security, open source and life is followed closely by many industry insiders via his blog and podcast, "Ashimmy, After All These Years" (www.ashimmy.com). Alan is now also a regular contributor to The CISO Group’s security.exe blog and podcast.

Alan has helped build several successful technology companies by combining a strong business background with a deep knowledge of technology. His legal background, long experience in the field, and New York street smarts combine to form a unique personality.

Disclosure: The CISO Group sells a software-as-a-service PCI compliance application called SAQPro. The company is independent and does not represent any other vendor's products as a reseller.

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