Are entreprises ready

for the OpenStack transformation?

Nick Barcet | nick@enovance.com | @nijaba | Juno OpenStack Summit | May 2014

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About me

● VP Products & Pre-Sales @ eNovance

● Been working on OpenStack since Austin

● Founded OpenStack Telemetry (aka Ceilometer)

● Travelling the world doing OpenStack

● @nijaba on irc & twitter

Disclaimer

● No enterprises were harmed in the making of this

presentation

● This presentation may not only apply to OpenStack, but to

most tools that one can use that deliver an API based cloud

IaaS

Is OpenStack a Product?

❏ Yes

❏ No

Is OpenStack a Product?

❏ Yes

✓ No. It's a technology framework.

OpenStack is not a product...

● Comparing products with technologies with products is like

comparing an engine with a car

● You have to keep focusing on your use cases

● You either need to integrate OpenStack with other

components or get a productized OpenStack from a vendor

OpenStack is not a product...

OpenStack will never be ready for the

enterprise!

OpenStack is not a product...

Yet enterprises may want an OpenStack

based cloud...

Why are enterprises interested in cloud?

● Save money

○ Reduce infrastructure costs

○ CAPEX <-> OPEX flexibility

● Make money

○ Reduce time to market

○ Enable new initiatives

○ Achieve bigger scale plans

Is free software a good enough reason?

“Free Software is gratis, right?

We’ll save on licensing costs!”

Is free software a good enough reason?

Are licensing costs a good enough reason to switch to OpenStack?

❏ Yes

❏ No

VMWare ESX recurring costs

● Licensing costs are only a small portion of overall cost

● Operation costs are linked to human salaries to operate the DC

⇒ Humans costs are the largest part

Analysis done by a large customer using ESX on his recurring costs. This may greatly vary depending on location

Is free software a good enough reason?

● Free software still has costs

○ Maintenance (subscription or internalized)

○ Expertise (experts are not cheap)

○ Knowledge (your teams have to learn new skills)

Is free software a good enough reason?

Are licensing costs a good enough reason to switch to OpenStack?

❏ Yes

✓ No, it’s only marginal

Why OpenStack then?

“If I don’t save on licences,

why should enterprise pick OpenStack?”

Good reasons for Free Software

● Real good reason for free software:

○ Adaptability (you can adapt or complete the software)

○ Security (you can control what’s in it)

○ Sharing (so you can split costs with others)

○ Standard (so you can be sure it interoperates)

○ Hybridation (your providers works the same way)

○ etc...

Good reasons for OpenStack

Benefits should not only come from the IaaS

itself….

… but from the transformation it enables!

Transformation enablement examples

● Enable business units to be more reactive in a faster market● Enable development teams to be more productive and

autonomous ● Enable (cloud ready) applications to be more scalable● Enable more creativity● Enable finer grain cost analysis and responsibilization

⇒ Be quicker, better, smarter to success!

OpenStack is the transformation?

“So, I just have to install OpenStack and I am done?”

OpenStack is the transformation?

● OpenStack is just a technology, a tool to enable the transformation

● OpenStack is an agility enabler○ For your business units○ For your development teams○ For your marketing

⇒ But only if you change the ways they interact with the data center

Transforming the interactions: BUs

Business units before

● Tell IT what they need

● Wait for approval

● Wait for IT to complete the need

● Complain when it fails

● Rely on IT for application SLA

● Are restrained by global policies that should not apply to them

Business units transformed

● Iterate on their needs

● Own the application they use

● Quickly launch MVPs to test

● Operate their applications

● Rely on IT for data center SLA

● Can adapt policies to match their market needs

Transforming the interactions: Developers

Developers before

● Receive lengthy specification and write code to match their understanding of the problem

● Fight for hardware allocation

● Transfer operational burden as quickly as possible

● Are not responsible of SLA

● Rely on global data store to be globally available

Devops

● Closely interact with stakeholders

● Iterate quickly to validate/adapt

● Are responsible for hw allocation

● Same team operate the applications they developed

● Build SLA into the application

● Build hybridation into the application

Transforming the interactions: Marketing

Marketing before

● Tell IT what they need

● Subcontract wildly to agencies

● Complain when it fails

● Don’t understand delays

● Always buy advertising space and create unrealistic hurdles

● Get tired of waiting and go AWS

Marketing transformed

● Allocate their own hardware

● Provide access to agencies

● Are responsible of their operations

● Fight with their own delays

● Find someone else to hurry for their crazy plans

● Are finally traceable in their spend

Transforming the interactions

OpenStack enables you to transform:

● Complainers → Creators

● Consumers → Operators

● Developer divas → Devops

● Large mammoth → Lean organizations

But you still have to operate the transformation!

Raising the abstraction level

Computing could be summarized a tool which main purpose is to raise abstraction levels

Binary → Assembly → Language A → Language B…

and is using it to fight against its own gravitational laws for scaling

Mainframe → PC → Client Server → 3 Tier → Distributed → Hybrid

Single Tasking → Multi Tasking → Multi Threading → Multi Core → Multi Node

Cloud is just one more abstraction

Cloud Infrastructures are just one more abstraction

enabling the handling of massive number of nodes

as if they were a simple entities (aka pet vs. cattle)

Abstraction → Transformation

To benefit from the abstraction you have to transform your tools

● Central DBs → Distributed DB (noSQL)● Vertical Scaling → Horizontal Scaling● Filesystems → Blocks and Objects● FIFO → Bus● Specialized → Commoditized● Unique → Pattern based● Sequential → Parallelized

OpenStack is made for the abstraction to happen

Transformation vs Migrations

OpenStack is made for the abstraction to happen and this is why it is not meant to handle your old workloads

● Migrations still have a cost

● Without adaptation it does not bring any benefits

● You need to accelerate, not just create more work

● Lean enablement cannot be done with bloated software

A possible way forward

● Start using your cloud with news apps or components○ Convert your apps calmly, within their normal life cycles○ You can mix and match computing models to proceed in

small shorter steps ○ Not all need to be cloud at once

⇒ then you should start seeing real benefits of OpenStack

A possible way forward

● Make hybrid apps ○ enable front ends to scale on multiple sites○ enable data to be maintained on multiple locations

⇒ which in turn will provide the benefits of real hybrid deployments that OpenStack enables

A possible way forward

● Change the way your IT teams work:○ each group should be responsible of delivering its

resources globally○ stop dividing those who operate from those who design○ stop defining silos in terms of responsibility but in term of

APIs and measurable objectives to maintain○ Stop the pre control craziness

■ trust is the first enabler of delegation ■ which leads to responsibility, autonomy and creativity

○ Measure end goals, not milestones ⇒ this is the only thing that matters

Summary

● Openstack is not a product

● It will never be “enterprise ready” by itself

● License costs are marginal

● Concentrate on enabling better processes

● and better tools

● Transforming your enterprise to produce more value

THANK YOU

Nick Barcet | nick@enovance.com | @nijaba | Juno OpenStack Summit | May 2014