Citrix Moves Away From OpenStack For Apache 29
netbuzz writes "Citrix today announced that it is turning its development attention away from the OpenStack project, started two years ago by NASA and Rackspace, in favor of its own CloudStack platform, Apache and Amazon Web Services. 'Based on challenges of the technical maturity and where we are with CloudStack, (OpenStack) became a path not viable,' says a Citrix executive. Industry analysts contend that the move says more about Citrix and its needs than it does OpenStack and its future."
Good for heterogeneity... (Score:4, Interesting)
There really should be a good three or so viable projects in any given space. The way some people talk it's like they really really want no choice in the matter.
Sometimes one size fits all cannot cover an entire market.
Also, specifically, OpenStack is servicable for some things, but it is far from perfect and has real limitations. For most openstack users the limitations are no big deal, but the limitations can be a dealbreaker for some scenarios. It has a lot of hype and attention behind it, moreso than any of the former leading favorites, but there is certainly room in the world for alternatives.
Citrix + Amazon (Score:5, Interesting)
Citrix already has a close relationship with Amazon. They have testing images available, white papers on how to integrate private and public EC2 cloud "farms" with your existing Citrix infrastructure, and not only promote Amazon AWS/EC2 for corporate usage, but make it easy for admins to draw on it as a test base for learning and playing with their new software offerings.
It wouldn't surprise me if they have plans to tie in per hour or other commoditized Citrix licensing with Amazon at some point in the future.
As they do all of this they will inevitably move closer towards Amazon and further away from Amazon's competitors. I don't see this as a surprising development.
I think is less about OpenStack and its relative merits and detriments, and more about Citrix and their corporate partnerships and strategic direction.