OpenStack private cloud thriving – despite the skeptics

Every now and then I see a headline that I just find perplexing. Sometimes it’s for an article written by someone I highly regard and respect, which just makes the whole thing more baffling. One example was the bold headline “Wake up! The private cloud fantasy is over.” The same source followed up more recently with “Using a private cloud? Admit your error and go public instead.”

Now those are statements I truly struggle to get my head around. The often quoted words of Mark Twain immediately came to mind: “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” It’s not surprising that public cloud devotees and enthusiasts would want to promote public cloud over private cloud. But the idea that private cloud is dead or is going away anytime soon is frankly preposterous.

Here are 3 reasons why.

1. The first headline above was for an article based on Wikibon research that estimated the public cloud market as 3.5 times the size of “true private cloud” in 2015. However, the research also predicted that private and public cloud would both see rapid growth over the next decade. According to Wikibon, private cloud is forecast to be roughly the size of traditional infrastructure hardware and software spending by 2026. That won’t be far behind public cloud spending. Not too shabby!
2. Wikibon quite rightly calls out that the distinction between virtualization and a “true private cloud” is often misunderstood. That’s a fair point. However, OpenStack matches the definition for a true cloud platform and it’s absolutely thriving. 451 Research forecasts OpenStack revenue to be growing at an impressive 30% CAGR and it’s expected to exceed $6bn in revenue by 2021. Pretty impressive! They also predict that OpenStack private cloud will overtake its public cloud revenue this year. The OpenStack user survey shows on-premises private cloud at 72% of all deployments.
3. According to SUSE’s own independently conducted market research, over half of all enterprises expect spending on private clouds to increase over the next 2 years. Only 8% expect it to decrease. The same study also called out that 82% of organizations are either already using OpenStack or are planning to do so. These numbers are difficult to ignore.

My view…

It’s not a case of “either-or” when it comes to cloud. Public, private and hybrid cloud will all continue to grow as businesses look for yet more innovation and agility.

SUSE is betting on it.  We have outstanding solutions to help you make the most of all of them.

When it comes to OpenStack and private cloud, things are moving at pace. SUSE OpenStack 8 was launched earlier this month. If you’re looking for a truly enterprise-grade private cloud, why not take a look and give it a try?

If you want proof that OpenStack is alive and kicking, representatives of the 88,000 strong community will be heading to Vancouver this month for the OpenStack Summit  (May 21^st-24^th). Stop by to talk to SUSE at booth B10, or sign up for one of these sessions to learn more about what a “true private cloud” platform can do for your business:

• Software Defined All the Way with OpenStack
• Software-Defined Infrastructure Delivery based on SUSE’s OpenStack Distribution
• SUSE Two-Day Training: OpenStack Administration (Day 1)
• SUSE Two-Day Training: OpenStack Administration (Day 2)