As cloud computing continues to evolve, it’s clear that the OpenStack platform is guaranteeing a strong open source foundation for the cloud ecosystem. At the recent OpenStack Days conference in Melbourne, OpenStack Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Bryce noted that although the early stages of cloud technology emphasized public platforms such as AWS, Azure and Google, the latest stage is much more focused on private clouds.
According to the The OpenStack Foundation User Survey, organizations everywhere have moved beyond just kicking the tires and evaluating OpenStack to deploying the platform. In fact, the survey found that OpenStack deployments have grown 44 percent year-over-year. More than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies are running the platform, and OpenStack is a global phenomenon. According to survey findings, five million cores of compute power, distributed across 80 countries, are powered by OpenStack.
The typical size of an OpenStack cloud increased over the past year as well. Thirty-seven percent of clouds have 1,000 or more cores, compared to 29 percent a year ago, and 3 percent of clouds have more than 100,000 cores. You can see the survey findings, which are based on responses from 2561 users, in this video overview.
The fact that OpenStack is built on open source is not lost on organizations deploying it. The OpenStack Foundation User Survey shows that avoiding vendor lock-in and accelerating the ability to innovate are the top reasons cited for OpenStack deployment. According to the survey, the highest number of OpenStack deployments fall within the Information Technology industry (56 percent), followed by telecommunications, academic/research, finance, retail/e-commerce, manufacturing/industrial, and government/defense.