The first example: Windows and Linux. Windows once ruled PCs and abused their power, but Linux is the operating system of the internet, linking us together like never before. More than half of the world ’ s servers run Linux.
Another example: AOL and the open internet. AOL led the charge of getting people online, but they could not stop the open internet from overcoming AOL ’ s market share. If they had, every company here would be telling you to go to “ Keyword: Cloud ” today.
The most recent example is being played out in the mobile space right now between Apple ’ s iOS and Google ’ s Android. iOS is a great platform, but Android has more market share and is innovating faster than Apple. In what universe would we expect to see commercials from Samsung making fun of Apple ’ s slow innovation?
Today I may sound like Paul Revere, warning you all that the CLOSED PLATFORM IS COMING and to prepare your business to avoid it.
Today closed platforms are all around us, forcing developers into a corner - their corner, with their rules.
But let ’ s be clear here. The biggest closed platform today is Amazon Web Services. AWS is a fantastic platform with tons of features and products.
But in reality, the closed platform is already here. It ’ s been here. If you are a victim of the closed platform, you have been tending a beautiful garden full of fancy products. But that garden has really high fences. Those products are designed to keep you locked into their platform, with no real alternatives. What is the alternative if you are using DynamoDB or Simple Workflow Service? Where do you go?
What if your closed provider changes their terms of service? Are you just going to click the “ agree ” checkbox and move on? With your business on the line? Eventually those terms and conditions are going to include pieces you can not or will not agree to. What then?
Open matters because the cloud matters. The cloud will control the future and it ’ s too big for a single company to be the dictator - having the only say as to what is and is not allowed.
An Open Cloud means users have the unbridled freedom to download the OpenStack code and add features you need. An Open Cloud lets users run it where they want, customize it how they want, and even alter the source code. If you want a change implemented in OpenStack, you can change it!
Yet there are Open Source alternatives on the rise - and OpenStack is leading the charge.
You can ’ t just pick up and move to another provider, not when you are locked into a single provider ’ s API and using a single provider ’ s closed products. Amazon says that an API that mimics AWS will be the alternative. But cloning an API end-to-end requires you clone the platform end-to-end, and cloning a platform to that depth and scale is impossible.
There are 8300 members of the OpenStack Community, and several of them are from hosting companies. Some of them, like Rackspace, help deploy clouds in your data center. That means that if you decide to make changes, you aren ’ t stuck.
I ’ m here from Rackspace of course, the Open Cloud company. I want you to host at Rackspace - we ’ re powered by Fanatical Support. That means we want our customers to have choices, and fanatical support means we could only go in one direction - toward the Open Cloud.
Our products are based on OpenStack projects. We are continuously delivering new features from the community into our public cloud.
We believe that an Open Cloud means open access to all. So come and talk to us. Find out how an Open Cloud can save you from a closed down locked-in future.