The new OpenStack Marketplace launches today, geared to the needs of organizations that want to build or use OpenStack clouds. Launching with five initial categories: Public Clouds, Distributions & Appliances, Training, Consulting & Systems Integrators, and Drivers, users can easily find and compare products and services that best meet their business requirements. All included products and services must meet specific technical requirements and be transparent with product information, such as OpenStack versions and capabilities supported.
“How to get started with OpenStack is one of the most common questions we receive,” said Mark Collier, COO of the OpenStack Foundation. “The answer is that there are many ways to consume OpenStack, whether they are building a cloud, looking to use one by the hour or pursuing a hybrid model. The Marketplace is intended to help users make sense of the paths to adoption and find the right mix of products, services and community resources to achieve their goals.”
The flexibility of underlying technology choices, absence of vendor lock-in, and open ecosystem are the top reasons for choosing OpenStack, according to the OpenStack user survey. The new Marketplace allows users to benefit from the breadth of available choices in the ecosystem, while cutting through the noise that the successful project has generated by presenting transparent, objective product information. It is designed to help OpenStack users make informed decisions and encourage compatibility among the OpenStack ecosystem.
Marketplace Features
The OpenStack Marketplace applies high standards to vendors wishing to participate. Products that include the OpenStack software, such as public cloud services and distributions & appliances must be running a current version and expose the OpenStack APIs. Product testing will be a requirement in subsequent iterations of the Marketplace, and details of the testing program are now under development with the OpenStack Board of Directors.
Users that need to know if their compute, storage and networking gear has compatible drivers in OpenStack can consult the Drivers section. Using data from the community-maintained DriverLog project, the Drivers section displays the various open-source and commercial technologies that integrate into OpenStack components, including which versions of OpenStack support each technology. Data from the DriverLog project will also be used by some members of the community in their own compatibility tools.
Created to put users in control, the Marketplace also features the ability for users to rate and review their experiences with the OpenStack ecosystem.
Participating Companies
Members of the OpenStack community are participating in the OpenStack Marketplace because it offers a direct path to potential buyers who are actively engaged in the evaluation and purchase process. There will be five different categories at launch:
1. OpenStack has a growing number of public infrastructure-as-a-service clouds around the world. To be listed in the Public Clouds section of the Marketplace, the cloud service must run a recent version of the software and expose the OpenStack APIs. Companies initially featured include Cloudwatt, HP, IO, Internap, Kio Networks, Rackspace, UnitedStack and Vexxhost.
2. Distributions & Appliances that contain OpenStack software are popular options for building private or public cloud services. OpenStack-powered distributions and appliances must also include a recent version of the software and expose the APIs in order to be included in the Marketplace. Companies initially featured include Canonical, Cloudscaling, EMC, HP, IBM, MetaCloud, Mirantis, Nebula, Oracle, Piston, Rackspace, Red Hat, SUSE and SwiftStack.
3. Many users start by hiring experts, which you can find in the Consultants and System Integrators section of the OpenStack Marketplace. Companies initially featured include Dell, eNovance, hastexo, HP, IBM, MetaCloud, Mirantis, Nexus, Pactera, Rackspace, and Solinea.
4. The Training Marketplace has been live since September 2013 and has been very popular among OpenStack users. More than 250 unique classes across 30 countries have been listed since launch from companies including Aptira, Cloudscaling, eNovance, hastexo, HP, Linux Foundation, Mirantis, MorphLabs, Piston, qSTC, Rackspace, Red Hat, Solinea, SUSE, Tesora and SwiftStack.
5. A fifth category will feature dozens of compatible Drivers using data from the community-driven DriverLog project. The community has worked with each company or open source project that plugs into OpenStack to make sure they meet high testing standards and provide a consistent, reliable experience for users.
The OpenStack Foundation will continue to expand the products and categories represented in the Marketplace. Members of the OpenStack community that wish to participate in the Marketplace or provide feedback can contact ecosystem@openstack.org.
OpenStack Summit Atlanta
The OpenStack Summit is underway this week in Atlanta. Attendees will hear Fortune 500 companies describe how OpenStack is transforming their business, in-depth case studies, technical talks and what’s new in the OpenStack vendor ecosystem, while contributors to the OpenStack software will develop the roadmap for the 10th software release, Juno. Headline sponsors include Rackspace, Dell, Canonical and SolidFire, along with more than 90 other sponsors and exhibitors. The event features presentations from a wide range of OpenStack developers and users, service providers and enterprises.
