Openstack Appliance

An OpenStack Appliance^[1] is the name given to software that can support the OpenStack cloud computing platform on either physical devices such as servers or virtual machines or a combination of the two.

Typically a software appliance^[2] is a set of software capabilities that can function without an operating system. Thus, they must contain enough of the essential underlying operating system components to work.

Therefore, a strict definition might be: an application that is designed to offer OpenStack capability without the necessity of an underlying operating system.

However, applying this strict definition may not be helpful, as there is not really a clear distinction between an appliance and a distribution.^[3] It could be argued that the term appliance is something of a misnomer because OpenStack itself is referred to as a cloud operating system^[4] so using the term OpenStack appliance could be a misnomer if one is being pedantic.

If we look at the range of Appliances and Distributions one could make the distinction that distributions are those toolsets which attempt to provide a wide coverage of the OpenStack project scope, whereas an Appliance will have a more narrow focus, concentrating on fewer projects.

Vendors have been heavily involved in OpenStack since its inception, and have since developed and are marketing a wide range of appliances, applications and distributions.

History

OpenStack was established as an initiative of NASA and Rackspace in 2010^[5] with the following mission statement,  "to produce the ubiquitous Open Source Cloud Computing platform that will meet the needs of public and private clouds regardless of size, by being simple to implement and massively scalable".^[6]

The OpenStack organization has grown rapidly and is supported by more than 540 companies.^[7]

In 2012 NASA withdrew from OpenStack as an active contributor, and instead made the strategic decision to use Amazon Web Services for cloud-based services.^[8]

The OpenStack challenge

Openstack is a complex entity, and adopters face a range of challenges when trying to implement OpenStack in an organisation. For many organisations trying to implement their own projects, a key issue is the lack of skills available.^[9] In an article on The New Stack, Atul JHA succinctly identifies five challenges any organization wishing to deploy OpenStack will face.^[10]

Installation challenges

OpenStack is a suite of projects rather than a single product, and because each of the various applications needs to be configured to suit the user's requirements, installation is complex and requires a range of complementary skill-sets^[11] for an optimum set-up. One obvious solution would be to take a complete vendor supplied package containing hardware and software, although due diligence is essential.^[12]

Documentation

This is more a function of the nature of documentation with open source products than OpenStack per se, but with more than 25 projects, managing document quality is always going to be challenging.^[13]

Upgrading OpenStack

One of the main objectives of using cloud type infrastructure is that it offers its users not only high reliability but also high availability,^[14] something that public cloud suppliers will offer in Service Level Agreements.^[15]

Such is the nature of OpenStack, due to its multi-project development approach, is that the complexity involved in synchronising the different projects during an upgrade implementation may mean that downtime is an unavoidable consequence.^[16]

Long term support

It’s quite common for a business to keep using an earlier release of software for some time after it has been upgraded. The reasons for this are pretty obvious and referred to above. However, there is little incentive for developers in an open source project to provide support for superseded code. In addition, OpenStack itself has formally discontinued support for some old releases.^[17]

Given the above challenges the most appropriate route for an organization wishing to implement OpenStack would be to go with a vendor, and source an OpenStack appliance or distribution.        

Selecting a vendor

A large number of vendors offer OpenStack solutions, meaning that an organization wishing to deploy the technology has a complex task in selecting the vendor offer that best matches its business requirements.^[18] Barb Darrow offered this over view in Fortune on May 27 2015,^[19] pointing out that there may be some consolidation in the market that will clarify things.

There are other aspects that people need to consider, for example, the real costs involved.^[20] How much of the actual OpenStack platform is offered? Some vendors will make an offer which encompasses most of the OpenStack projects; others will only offer certain components. Please refer to the table below for details. Other considerations: to what extent has a vendor injected proprietary code to manage a lack of maturity in an OpenStack component?^[21] And to what extent does proprietary code mean vendor lock-in?^[22]

The most authoritative information on vendor products is at the OpenStack Foundation website.^[23]

OpenStack Appliances and Distros

References