OpenStack Momentum: Increased Deployments During Pandemic

OpenStack 24: The Xena Release and Growing Adoption

The open-source project OpenStack, empowering large enterprises and cloud providers to establish private cloud infrastructures akin to AWS within their own data centers, has announced the availability of OpenStack 24. This release, bearing the codename Xena, centers on refining and enhancing the system’s existing functionalities.

Growth and Current Usage

Despite facing challenges throughout its history, the OpenStack project – now managed by the OpenInfra Foundation – is experiencing notable growth in adoption. The total number of cores managed by OpenStack has increased by 66% over the past year, as reported by the Foundation.

OpenStack continues to serve as a foundational technology for numerous telecommunications companies. In fact, nine out of the ten largest telcos globally rely on OpenStack for their operations. Recent 5G calls made on the Verizon network were facilitated, in part, by OpenStack (Disclosure: Verizon formerly owned TechCrunch through Verizon Media). Furthermore, organizations like Workday and Walmart are now utilizing OpenStack deployments, managing over 1 million cores collectively.

However, China Mobile stands apart with an impressive deployment exceeding 6 million cores.

Demand Drivers and Core Expansion

“This represents the most significant year-over-year increase we’ve observed,” stated Mark Collier, COO of the OpenInfra Foundation. “Extensive discussion has focused on the surge in infrastructure demand spurred by the pandemic. Alongside this, the rapid expansion needs of hyperscale public clouds are demonstrably fueling OpenStack demand. The addition of 10 million cores within a single year is remarkable.”

He continued, “One hundred new clouds were implemented in the last year alone. Currently, seven organizations operate over a million cores.”

New Foundation Member and Project Integration

Recently, Microsoft joined the OpenInfra Foundation as a Platinum member, contributing $350,000 annually. This places them alongside prominent members such as Ant Group, AT&T, Ericsson, Facebook, FiberHome, Huawei, Red Hat, Tencent Cloud, and Wind River.

With 24 releases completed, the essential tools for operating a private cloud – encompassing compute, storage, and networking – are now firmly established. Ongoing development focuses on expanding features, such as support for a wider range of PCI devices, enabling enterprises to connect SmartNICs to OpenStack’s Nova compute and Neutron networking services.

Enhanced Flexibility and Unified Command-Line Interface

“A key theme of this release is the integration of projects,” explained Kendall Nelson, OpenStack’s Upstream Developer Advocate. “OpenStack Cyborg, Nova, and Neutron have collaborated extensively on enhancing flexibility regarding peripheral component interconnect devices – PCI devices – demonstrating the benefits of project synergy.”

This effort also includes incorporating more functionalities from various components into the unified OpenStack command-line tool.

Nelson elaborated, “Previously, each service had its own dedicated client, maintained by its respective project. We’ve been concentrating on the OpenStack client and the underlying OpenStack SDK in recent releases, aiming to consolidate project-specific clients. This will provide users with a single command-line interface for all their interactions.”

Hardware Enablement and Technical Debt Reduction

Thierry Carrez, VP of Engineering at the OpenInfra Foundation, highlighted that many updates are driven by evolving hardware requirements and the increasing scale of OpenStack deployments.

“The priorities of development are shifting as we observe,” he noted. “While core features are now relatively stable, hardware enablement is the primary driver of new development.”

The development team also dedicated resources to addressing accumulated technical debt, including the removal of support for outdated APIs.

Future Events and Expanding Ecosystem

The OpenInfra Foundation, which also supports projects like Kata Containers, Zuul, StarlingX, and Airship, announced the resumption of in-person conferences. The next event will be held in Berlin from June 7 to 9, with registration opening next month. A virtual event, OpenInfra Live: Keynotes, is scheduled for this November.