OpenStack Is Back! Not That It Ever Left 

By all accounts, 2024 was a banner year for OpenStack, the open source cloud computing platform governed by the OpenInfra Foundation. Since July 2014, Pure Storage has supported the OpenStack project and contributed over 50,000 lines of code. And we’ll be at the upcoming OpenInfra Days event on March 6-7 in Pasadena, CA.  

It’s difficult to gauge the size of a market for open source software since it’s free. But one analyst firm estimates the OpenStack services market will be over $30 billion in 2025, rising to $120 billion by 2030, for an incredible 32% CAGR. That’s a rocket ship. 

OpenStack has always been popular with telecom companies and forms the basis for a great deal of Network Functions Virtualization. But the recent burst in interest is new and several factors are involved. 

The largest impact may be the VMware licensing changes introduced by Broadcom, which took everyone by surprise, including the OpenStack community. In a TechCrunch article, OpenInfra Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Bryce said, “I did not have ‘VMware sparks OpenStack resurgence’ on my 2024 bingo card. It’s definitely been something that has driven just an incredible amount of interest. And, I would say that from our perspective, it’s something that’s developing rapidly still, even though we’re several months into this.”

VMware and OpenStack are very different beasts, but OpenStack is close to feature parity with VMware. The OpenInfra Foundation provides a very helpful side-by-side comparison of the two platforms, and Pure Storage has published an even more detailed examination. (We also have comparisons with Hyper-V and KVM.)

Like everything else, AI is increasing interest because of OpenStack’s ability to scale horizontally, new features like Blazar that allow reservation of GPU instances, and the Kata Containers project that provides secure container runtimes on lightweight virtual machines. 

Finally, data sovereignty issues and concerns about the security of public cloud platforms have organizations looking more toward building private clouds in-house.   

While OpenStack is certainly less expensive from a licensing perspective, it’s not without costs such as services and migrations. And not all organizations will have internal knowledge, so there may be skill gaps requiring hiring or training. One way to simplify OpenStack is to run it on top of Pure Storage.  

Pure Storage FlashArray: The Ideal OpenStack Infrastructure 

When it comes to OpenStack, not all storage is created equal. Pure Storage® FlashArray™ has multiple points of integration with OpenStack and is the easiest-to-use storage platform for high-performance, scalable OpenStack deployments. All configuration is controlled by the Pure Storage drivers for OpenStack. Integration with Cinder—the block-storage service for OpenStack—saves deployment and maintenance time. Storage administrators aren’t required to learn another tool or graphical user interface or waste time setting up multiple back-end arrays. FlashArray enhances OpenStack resiliency with 99.9999% array uptime and multiple data protection mechanisms, including tri-sync replication which copies data to three locations (primary plus two). 

There’s a lot more that Pure Storage delivers for OpenStack, and you can check out our solution brief to get the full details. If you want to try it for yourself, take a test drive and run the “FlashArray & OpenStack” lab. Note: You’ll need to register or consult your Pure Storage account team for a Test Drive voucher first.  

And we never rest. There are always more features in the pipeline. For example, Cinder driver updates will include support for vVols which will help with VMware migrations. This is expected to be in the next release (2025.1 in April).

The Pure Storage Secret Weapon

When it comes to OpenStack, Pure Storage has a secret weapon: Simon Dodsley, Director Open Source Integrations. Simon is a world-class expert on OpenStack and IT automation and has been a contributor to the OpenStack project for many years. He publishes detailed technical information on his blog, “The Ansible Guy.” Simon meets with Pure Storage customers and prospects to discuss their OpenStack implementations. If you’d like to arrange a call with Simon, please work with your Pure Storage account team. If you’re new to Pure Storage, you can reach us via our contact page. 

And for those attending OpenInfra Days on March 6-7, Simon will be on hand at the Pure Storage table. Stop by and say hello and share thoughts with a genuine subject matter expert. 

With so many factors at play in the market, it’s no surprise that OpenStack is having a resurgence and expanding into new organizations. 

Get the solution brief to learn more about FlashArray integration with OpenStack, and join us at OpenInfra Days. 

BUYER’S GUIDE, 14 PAGES

A Buyer’s Guide to Modern Virtualization

Read Buyer’s Guide