Cisco backs OpenStack cloud platform

IDG News Service - Cisco Systems has thrown its weight behind OpenStack, the open-source cloud infrastructure platform developed jointly by NASA and managed service provider Rackspace Hosting.

Thursday also marked the release of a new version of OpenStack, code-named Bexar, which adds better storage capabilities, a software image repository and support for Internet Protocol version 6, Rackspace said.

OpenStack is a free, open-source platform that service providers can use to offer infrastructure services similar to Amazon Web Services' EC2 and S3. It has two main parts -- Nova, originally developed by NASA for its computer processing services, and Swift, the storage service component developed by Rackspace.

Rackspace says its goal is to enable the development of interoperable services, or those that allow a customer to move a workload from one cloud service provider to another, without being locked in.

It's trying to muscle in alongside VMware's vCloud software, which is not open source but is also aimed at service providers, and Eucalyptus, an open-source platform compatible with Amazon Web Services.

Last month, Internap became the first company outside Rackspace and NASA to offer a service based on OpenStack. Its XIPCloud Storage service is currently in beta.

Cisco is expected to contribute code to the project that will make it easier for customers to configure its switches in an OpenStack environment, said Mark Collier, vice president of business development at Rackspace.

Officials at Cisco, which is also a close partner of VMware, weren't available for an interview late Wednesday. In a statement via email, Lew Tucker, CTO of Cisco's Cloud Computing division, said Cisco is "pleased to announce its participation as a contributing member of the OpenStack community."

"Provisioning of the network and network-based services are fundamental components of cloud computing and we look forward to working with the rest of the community to ensure the success of this open source project," he said.

Along with Cisco, other OpenStack members announced Thursday include Ubuntu Linux distributor Canonical, Extreme Networks, and Grid Dynamics. They bring the total to about 50 members, which already included Dell and Citrix Systems. Microsoft is not a member but has said its Hyper-V virtualization software will work with OpenStack.

The OpenStack project is still new -- its first release, Austin, came out only in October -- so Rackspace hopes support from big vendors like Cisco will make companies more confident about using its software.

"People are making big decisions about the cloud that they'll have to live with for many years," Collier said. "If someone thinks about adopting a cloud platform, especially an open source one, the more credible the companies behind it, the more they're going to feel at ease that it will be here for the long haul."