Reply to post: It's all about API's

It's all about API's

I think the author of this post is "bang-on", including his comments regarding OpenStack, and I run a company that monetizes OpenStack. There seem's to be some discussion with respect to cloud and what it is, why we need it, and is it really worth the effort ? I believe there is a need for an on-premise "AWS" like cloud. Yes, self-service is important, likewise with elasticity and many of the other features referred to in the comments but what makes AWS so appealing is their API's - while Microsoft and VMware have fallen very short here. OpenStack has created an abstraction layer that addresses the entire datacenter via API's. Yes, some of you will argue that VMware has API's and they do, but those API's are for front-end access for the purposes of automation, aka DevOps. OpenStack's API's are front-end and Back-end. With OpenStack, an enterprise storage array can speak to the Block API (Cinder) and front-end DevOps can automate the provisioning of storage, snapshots even replication. If you replace that storage array with another Cinder supported array, none of the DevOps front end scripts need change, because we are issuing Cinder commands not array specific commands. With Microsoft & VMware those scripts would require modification, in some cases very little, but still modifications. This same abstraction applies to Network and Compute. It's all about the API's. Assholes & Opinions, everyone has one, this is mine.