3 Reasons why the Open Infrastructure Summit in Denver was Simply Outstanding.

This was not my first rodeo. I’ve attended most of the OpenStack Summits since my first one in Atlanta, Georgia back in May of 2014. They have always been a highpoint in my working calendar and I look forward to each of them with tremendous enthusiasm.

The first-ever Open Infrastructure Summit in Denver was no exception. It lived up to all my expectations. The name of the Summit has changed to reflect a wider remit.

Photo by Steven Gerner

The focus is no longer on OpenStack cloud alone but has shifted to embrace the whole open infrastructure ecosystem surrounding it. But one thing has not changed. The passion, spirit, and energy of the community attending the event has remained exactly the same.

So, why was this Open Infrastructure Summit particularly outstanding?

Let me give you three good reasons why.

Collaborative, Cooperative, and Candid Community

First, Denver was a great location for the Summit. Known as the “Mile-High” city because its altitude is a mile above sea level, it really does have its head in the clouds. That’s pretty appropriate for an event where OpenStack cloud plays such a pivotal role.

Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth visiting the SUSE Spa for a quick massage and a photo

It was also difficult to miss the huge blue bear that stood peering in through the windows of the convention center and into the lobby where the Summit was taking place. For me, that was a reflection of the open nature and ethos of the whole event and community. Everyone is welcome to come and peer in – to see what’s going on and to contribute. And plenty did, including vendors, developers, IT professionals and business leaders.

I believe that open source is all about fostering a collaborative, cooperative and candid approach to building solutions. It needs to include developers, customers, end users and competitors alike. It’s all about inclusion and diversity.

That was certainly what I experienced in the meetings, discussions, and sessions I enjoyed while in Denver.

No doubt about it, we truly are an open community.

Continued Momentum for OpenStack Foundation

During his candid and very personal keynote, Jonathan Bryce stated that “Open collaboration is a powerful force for driving technology to change our lives and our world”. I couldn’t agree more. Shared innovation is the way forward and I’m totally convinced that open source is the approach that will win. Take a look at my discussion with Swapnil Bhartiya for some of the reasons why.

Jonathan took a trip down memory lane to reminisce about his journey through the history of OpenStack.  OpenStack Stein has just been released. That’s 19 on-time OpenStack code releases, each building on the powerful features and functionality that has made it the pre-eminent open source cloud platform. After over a decade, it remains one of the top 3 most active open source projects, with a global community now topping 105,000 members and spanning 180 countries.

A Supportive Environment for new Ideas, Projects, and Experience

I’m always impressed with the speed at which innovation happens in an open source community. It was only 6 months ago that several new open infrastructure pilot projects were announced under the stewardship of the OpenStack foundation. Here’s a quick progress report:

• Airship is all about Kubernetes based cloud container deployment and lifecycle automation tools. Airship 1.0 was launched at the Summit.
• Kata Containers is a secure container runtime providing the workload isolation and security advantages of VMs. Kata Containers was confirmed as a top-level project in Denver.
• Zuul is a CI/CD platform that is already proven at scale supporting the OpenStack project. Zuul is now also confirmed as a top-level project by the OpenStack Foundation Board.

I’m also delighted that SUSE OpenStack Cloud 9 was released during the Denver Summit. It’s specifically designed to help businesses transition existing, traditional workloads into their OpenStack cloud and to make the lifecycle management of their private cloud infrastructure easier.

And finally…let me come back to the topic of a supportive environment for new experiences.

While in Denver, I took the opportunity to go out with a group of friends.  One item on the menu included crickets and ants – honestly! It had to be tried. They were tasty, crunchy and had a tendency to get stuck in your teeth. Definitely a new culinary experience for me.

And talking of new experiences, the next Open Infrastructure Summit will be in Shanghai, China in November. I’m looking forward to meeting even more members of the OpenStack community as well as exploring even more exotic and exciting cuisine.