By Brandon Butler, Senior Editor, Network World |

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Cloud Chronicles is written by Network World Senior Writer Brandon Butler, who tracks the ins and outs of the cloud computing industry.

Google cloud to OpenStack users: Come on in!

Google sees OpenStack as strategic partner in the cloud. AWS and Azure don't

Open source cloud computing platform OpenStack has a new semi-annual version of its code out this month and one symbolically important aspect is a deepened partnership with Google’s public cloud.

+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Status check on OpenStack: The open source cloud has arrived | Why Google hasn’t taken off in the cloud yet +

In a blog post, Google announced that the Mitaka release of OpenStack includes a native option to backup OpenStack Cinder storage volumes to its public cloud.

Cinder Backups to Google cloud

OpenStack’s block storage service is named Cinder, which houses virtual machine data and data at rest; most organizations deem this important enough data to backup. OpenStack provides a native backup driver that allows Cinder to be backed up to various storage platforms. Google has now integrated its public cloud as a native backup option for Cinder.

Why it’s important

The move further differentiates Google’s IaaS public cloud from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure when it comes to supporting OpenStack. Google joined the OpenStack Foundation last year and has been working on integrating its open source container manager named Kubernetes into OpenStack. Now, in the Mitaka release of OpenStack (the 13^th version of the open source code) Google is integrating its standard public cloud storage, as well as its less-expensive Nearline storage service. Google sees OpenStack private cloud users as potential public cloud customers. AWS and Azure have much more tepid relations with OpenStack.

This isn't the first partnership Google has made with a major private cloud platform. Late last year Google and VMware teamed up to announce a strategic partnership that allows VMware on-premises management tools to integrate with Google's Cloud Platform. Google seems willing to support private cloud platforms that build onramps to its public cloud.

Austin Calling

Google’s news comes just weeks before the OpenStack community is meeting in Austin for its annual domestic summit. Expect more news from big-name vendors as the event gets closer and open source cloud fanatics return to the city where OpenStack was born.

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Senior Editor Brandon Butler covers the cloud computing industry for Network World by focusing on the advancements of major players in the industry, tracking end user deployments and keeping tabs on the hottest new startups.

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