Apache CloudStack Becomes a Top-level Project

ke4qqq writes with an excerpt from an ASF press release: "The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced that Apache CloudStack has graduated from the Apache Incubator to become a Top-Level Project (TLP), signifying that the Project's community and products have been well-governed under the ASF's meritocratic process and principles."

Comments

Nonsense

[neonmonk]

"CloudStack provides an open and flexible cloud orchestration platform to deliver reliable and scalable private and public clouds."

When I go to an "About" page, I expect to be told exactly what x thing is all about.

As it stands, I have no idea what CloudStack is or does, apart from nonsensical "cloud" mumbo jumbo.

Re:Nonsense

[girlinatrainingbra]

the real details and answer about what "Apache Cloudstack" really is available at http://cloudstack.apache.org/cloudstack-faq.html
.
Maybe apache is trying to make sure that the managers and bosses can be sure to play buzzword bingo and win when they choose Apache Cloudstack. I completely agree with you that an "about" page really ought to tell you what the software is really about. It's frustrating to have to go to the FAQ page and still see a lot of buzzword baloney (bologna / baloney, it's still compressed meat either way).

Re:Nonsense

[Tribaal_ch]

Short answer: It's "like Amazon EC2", but you deploy it on your own hardware. That's IaaS (Infrastrucutre as a Service in cloud talk). PaaS (Platform as a Service) is "like heroku, but on your own hardware".

Re:Nonsense

[Spy Handler]

Cloud is all the rage. So is Mobile. Yep, definitely mobile. And Apps.

Call it Apache Mobile App Cloudstack and pointy haired bosses will have an orgygasm.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service

[girlinatrainingbra]

So how is "Infrastructure-as-a-Service" clouds different from "Software-as-a-service" clouds? Is one cumulonimbus and the other cirrus? ;>)
.
No, seriously, my question is whether supplying "infrastructure as a service" just means "hosting"? Because hosting has always been available. So it's hosting+software availability? From the Apache web site at http://cloudstack.apache.org/about.html : CloudStack provides an open and flexible cloud orchestration platform to deliver reliable and scalable private and public clouds.

Orchestration? Srsly?
;>p
Private and public clouds? Would that be the same as restricted access internal facing "intranet" and public-facing "internet" access? I'm glad that Apache is joining the band of buzzword warriors, but I'm also glad that the real details and answer about what "Apache Cloudstack" really is available at http://cloudstack.apache.org/cloudstack-faq.html :

Apache CloudStack is a complete software suite for creating Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. Target environments include service providers and enterprises.
-- The Apache CloudStack platform enables service providers to set up an on-demand, elastic cloud computing service. It enables a utility computing service by allowing service providers to offer self-service virtual machine instances, storage volumes, and networking configurations over the Internet.
-- The Apache CloudStack platform enables enterprises to set up a private cloud for use by their own employees. The current generation of virtualization infrastructure targets enterprise IT departments who manage virtual machines the same way they would manage physical machines. The Apache CloudStack platform, on the other hand, enables self-service of virtual machines by users outside of the IT department.
-- As an open source IaaS, Apache CloudStack is available to individuals and organizations that wish to study and implement an IaaS for personal, educational, and/or production use.

Re:Infrastructure-as-a-Service

[Anonymous Coward]

SaaS (Software as a Service): bring your own data.
PaaS: (Platform as a Service): bring your own applications and data.
IaaS: (Infrastructure as a Service): bring your own OS, applications and data.

Get off of my Cloud!

[girlinatrainingbra]

Lighten up! Or as the 1960's song would tell you about my private cloud: Hey,...
You,...
Get off of my cloud

Now you kids get off my damn lawn, and stay the hell off of my cloud! ;>)

Decoder Ring for You Out-of-date Nerds

[Traiano]

Since the three highest modded posts at this moment don't understand cloud, I wanted to post one perspective in hopes the rest would care.

For a couple years now the world has settled on a definition for cloud. It's three service models. (1) Delivering an application through a web interface (SaaS), delivering an OS in a virtual machine for arbitrary applications (Iaas), delivering a development platform to simplify the creation of a new generation of applications (PaaS).

Controlling the lifecycle of these resources is non-trivial. It requires hooks at virtual machine creation, security for access, limits for resource consumption, and time tables for reclamation. In the industry we call this orchestration.

Finally, these models in highly-controlled on-premis environments is called "private cloud". Running them in fully shared datacenters is called "public cloud". Giving customers the ability to federate services across these two environments is called "hybrid cloud".

Here endeth the lesson. Just because you don't understand a word doesn't make it a buzzword.

Re:Decoder Ring for You Out-of-date Nerds

[chiefmojorising]

NIST's cloud definition is pretty spot on. They define cloud as having the following characteristics:

On-demand self-service
Broad network access
Resource pooling
Rapid elasticity
Measured service ...all working together to provide the following service models:

Software as a Service
Platform as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service ...hosted in one of the following deployment models:

Private cloud
Community cloud
Public cloud
Hybrid cloud

Anyway, that's the stripped down list without details. The short paper (with details!) I pulled that from is here:

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf

Re:Decoder Ring for You Out-of-date Nerds

[NeutronCowboy]

Personally, the only term I have a problem with is Private Cloud. A private cloud is the classic in-house data center, hosting third-party software accessed via a browser that comes with more or less support from the vendor. There is nothing special about it. I hear it constantly, but it still bugs me as the term that really is trying to put some lipstick on the old pig that is the in-house data center.

Re:Decoder Ring for You Out-of-date Nerds

[WiPEOUT]

An in-house data centre need not have an automated resource provisioning and usage metering capability, utility fashion (i.e. for SaaS, automated provisioning and deployment of data sets into your application instance(s) and reporting on their usage by relevant metrics such as users or data throughput; for PaaS, automated provisioning and deployment of application components and instances thereof and their usage by relevant metrics such as messages processed or concurrent transactions; for IaaS, automated provisioning and deployment of virtual machines and their usage by relevant metrics such as CPU time or IOPS). It can be automated, it can be manual, or a combination of both.
A real private cloud does.

An in-house data centre is your facility, whether leased, built or bought.
A private cloud need not be. As long as only you are not sharing resources at the level being sold (e.g. for SaaS, nobody else is in your application instance; for PaaS, nobody else is processing transactions on the same transaction processor; for IaaS, nobody else is running VMs on the same physical hardware), you need not be the only customer in the facility/floor/room/cage/aisle/rack.

In short, an in-house data centre is not automatically a private cloud, nor is a private cloud automatically in an in-house data centre.