OpenStack Picks Up Momentum in the Enterprise

While proprietary hypervisors continue to dominate enterprise IT, open-source clouds are gaining momentum. A new study by Zenoss, a provider of open-source IT monitoring software, shows that 43 percent of 376 IT professionals polled said they have deployed a private cloud based on open-source software, and the most dominant form of open-source cloud software is OpenStack. Despite the competitive battle between Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for "public cloud supremacy," the real battle in the enterprise is around the "private cloud, which is where open-source cloud communities … hope to gain significant ground," the report states. "Of course, with the hybrid deployment model, security concerns will inevitably start to surface. Enterprises will seek consistent security across their cloud deployment, which in these cases will be a mix of on-premise and in the cloud." Providers of proprietary virtualization platforms, such as VMware and Microsoft, have the inside track when it comes to private clouds in the enterprise. However, solution providers in the channel must recognize that OpenStack will be a force to be reckoned with if they don't want to lose out on opportunities.