STATE OF OPENSTACK ADOPTION REPORT
Industry Survey Results
February 2016
Why Another OpenStack Report?
The open source cloud computing project, OpenStack, has come a long way since NASA
and Rackspace launched it in 2010. However, with all of its recent successes, there are still questions
and debates that surround OpenStack adoption that are worth answering.
VMblog and CloudCow media surveyed nearly 650 technology professionals and members of
organizational management in order to gauge people’s understanding and adoption of OpenStack; as
well, to find out how the market is using the technology. The survey results reflect a wide range of
industries and company sizes, ranging from less than 10 to more than 10,000 employees. Data was
also representative across the globe, with the majority of respondents coming from North and South
America, followed by Europe.
Overview
•
•
VMblog.com and CloudCow.com set out to gather information about the current state of
OpenStack adoption.
For those currently using or evaluating OpenStack:
–
–
–
•
For those currently using OpenStack:
–
•
What is driving the adoption of OpenStack?
What are the key hurdles to adoption?
What are the key use cases?
What are you doing with it once you have it in place?
The survey resulted in 647 responses, reflecting a wide range of industries and company size.
Highlights of OpenStack Adoption
1.
OpenStack is considered a cost effective alternative to public clouds.
–
2.
OpenStack deployments, once in place, are expected to expand quickly beyond
development environments.
–
–
3.
Lab – expected growth from 43% to 89% within 12 months
QA/Test – expected growth from 47% to 91% within 12 months
Security model and operational tools are the top challenges to OpenStack adoption.
–
4.
The top drivers for OpenStack adoption include public cloud cost that is too high (61%) and a desire to improve
responsiveness for IT service delivery (59%).
Security Model (26%) and Lack of Operational Tools (23%) were mentioned most often as the top challenge for
OpenStack adoption.
Ease of management and stability of OpenStack are improving.
–
–
Evaluators and Users of OpenStack have different perceptions about complexity and deployment.
Evaluators of OpenStack believe that complexity and difficulty of deployment are decreasing, while Users of
OpenStack are more likely to rate that complexity and difficulty of deployment are increasing.
Highlights of OpenStack Use
1.
The expectation is that OpenStack will be able to handle any workload type in short order
(with the exception of “pets”).
–
–
2.
Current OpenStack users expect high levels of private cloud use within the next 5 years (and
not domination of public cloud).
–
3.
4.
No application type or workload registered less than 83% for currently deliver or within 12 months.
The top 3 workloads currently delivered on OpenStack include: new greenfield applications (69% currently deliver);
containers (61%), web applications (58%)
54% of respondents expect their cloud use to be all or mostly private, with another 14% expecting a balanced mix of
private and public.
PaaS, Containers, and privately managed OpenStack are expected to grow in use while
proprietary public clouds and legacy virtualization are expected to decline.
Consumption of services to help deploy and support OpenStack clouds is high.
–
For those using OpenStack to support projects or production workloads, 85% are paying for support or related
services.
What is your familiarity with OpenStack Technology?
(n = 647)
Never heard of it
2%
Highlights
 The survey was asked of a general virtualization
and cloud audience, rather than focusing specifically
on existing OpenStack users in order to get a
complete understanding.
 With 647 survey responses, it became clear that
OpenStack has definitely become a more mature
technology with increased visibility. Only 2% of
respondents had never heard of it; and another 36%
were familiar with the technology, but not yet using
it.
 More than half of those surveyed were already
using OpenStack within their organization in some
form or fashion: 32% were kicking the tires and
evaluating it, and 30% were using it to support
current projects or production workloads.
Using it to
support projects
or production
workloads
30%
Familiar with, not
using it
36%
Currently
evaluating it
32%
For those evaluating or using OpenStack, what is motivating you?
Public cloud cost is too high
Improved responsiveness
Consolidation benefits
Legacy IT costs are too high
Avoid vendor lock-in
Higher availability
Flexibility
OpenStack is the easiest cloud
0
50
100
150
200
250
For those evaluating or using OpenStack, what are the adoption
plans for OpenStack at your company/organization?
250
200
150
100
50
0
Using now
Within 12 months
Development
>12 months
Lab
QA/Test
Production
No plans to adopt
For those evaluating or using OpenStack, what is the top
challenge you have experienced adopting OpenStack?
Security model
Lack of operational tools for production
Managing the cost structure, chargeback
Reliance on open source
Lack of deployment tools
Internal resistance
Available talent
Overall complexity
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
What are the biggest challenges you have experienced adopting
OpenStack today?
“The migration to an OpenStack platform is complex and requires a lot of architectural planning that is always underestimated.”
“Deploying VLAN based networking.”
“Installation complexity for those who use it for the first time, even by following documentation.”
“Finding the talent to manage and operate OpenStack.”
“Putting all the pieces together by ourselves and figuring out how to keep it manageable and upgradeable.”
“A lack of market penetration for customers willing to pay for value added tooling.”
“Biggest is internal resistance due to the 6-month release cycle -- some teams want stuff faster and don't like the community-driven
process.”
“Establishing adequate knowledge to know where to start with OpenStack. I do not think I could have stood up an OpenStack
environment without a streamlined deployment method such as VIO. There were various errors during deployment, and that was
taking all drivers/storage/network pieces out of the equation thanks to vSphere.”
For those evaluating or using OpenStack
Do you believe that the big IT vendors are
leading OpenStack Cloud Platform in the
right direction?
Do you believe that the Big Tent initiative is
helping the OpenStack ecosystem?
Unsure
9%
Unsure
8%
No
11%
No
12%
Yes
80%
Yes
80%
Do you believe that the big IT vendors are leading OpenStack
Cloud Platform in the right direction?
“The lack of operational tooling coupled with the reality of deployment tools really needs to get solved to decrease
the complexity as well as assist not only deploying but also supporting OpenStack.”
“Most are looking to complement the vanilla devstack with proprietary bits rather than contribute upstream and
remain distinctive based on internal knowledge and acceleration.”
“The question is always what their motives are.”
“Without proper big vendor support and investment, OpenStack would end up like CloudStack.”
“Seems to be going more to private cloud than I'd like.”
“I have doubts that the big IT Vendors are doing more harm than good (generally speaking).”
“Releases are unstandardized and there are overlapping projects.”
How do you think the OpenStack Cloud Platform is evolving?
Currently Using OpenStack
Stability to support workloads
Difficulty of management
Standardization
Difficulty of deployment
Complexity
0%
10%
20%
30%
Improving
40%
Neither
50%
Declining
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
How do you think the OpenStack Cloud Platform is evolving?
Evaluating OpenStack
Stability to support workloads
Difficulty of management
Standardization
Difficulty of deployment
Complexity
0%
10%
20%
30%
Improving
40%
Neither
50%
Declining
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
For those using OpenStack, are you paying for support or related
services for your OpenStack cloud?
Highlights
 Operating a cloud is not for the faint of heart,
and running anything at scale can prove to be a
major challenge. It takes a lot of skills, tools, and
monitoring, and it can get pretty complicated.
No
15%
 It is no surprise that 85% of respondents
currently using OpenStack reported that they are
paying for support or related services to maintain
their environment.
 We expect that number to decrease over time as
OpenStack and the tools to support it mature, and
as more users become experts in the field, much
like what happened with VMware vSphere
environments.
Yes
85%
For those using OpenStack, what types of applications and use
cases do you currently or expect to deliver using OpenStack?
New greenfield apps
Containers
Web-facing applications
Test and QA
Cloud-based applications
Migrating existing production workloads
Devops
PaaS
Big data or production enterprise apps
0%
20%
Currently deliver
40%
60%
Within 12 months
80%
>12 months
100%
No plans
For those using OpenStack, what types of applications and use
cases do you currently or expect to deliver using OpenStack?
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Currently deliver Within 12 months
Pets
>12 months
Cattle
No plans
For those using OpenStack, 5 years from now, what is the
anticipated mix of cloud models for your company/organization?
Highlights
 Industry vendors like VMware, IBM, HPE, Cisco
and more are exploring ways to support customers
in a hybrid cloud mix. Respondents expect to
gravitate to one model or the other, with only 14%
expecting a mostly hybrid environment in 5 years.
 A majority of respondents currently using
OpenStack are still prepared to maintain most of
their environment on-premises, with 54% saying
they will continue to be more than 80% private over
the next 5 years.
 Equally interesting, 30% of the respondents using
OpenStack plan to move more than 80% of their
environments to the public cloud over the next 5
years which could be a signal that security concerns
may be fading.
Too far out to
determine
2%
Mix of both
public and
private
14%
More than 80%
public
30%
More than 80%
private
54%
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
Containers
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
PaaS
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
Self-managed
Private
OpenStack
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
Microsoft
Azure
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
VMware
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
Amazon Web
Services
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
Google
Cloud Platform
For those using OpenStack, what is the current and anticipated mix of
virtualization and cloud technologies at your company/organization?
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
None
<2%
2-10%
Now
10-33%
33-66%
24 months from now
66-100%
Vendor Managed
OpenStack
Respondent Demographics
Highlights
Size of Company
Respondents work in organizations from
as few as less than 10 employees to well
beyond 10,000 employees.
 The largest segment of survey
respondents fall in the 100-999 employee
range, with 44% classified as such. This was
followed closely by those in the 1,000-9,999
employee range, reaching 35%.
 A wide variety of organizational sizes
shows the cross section of technologists
surveyed is a strong representation of varied
companies across the globe. And suggests,
OpenStack is a strong solution for both
enterprise and SMB companies.
<10
3%
10,000+
2%
10-99
16%
1,000-9,999
35%
100-999
44%
Respondent Demographics
Highlights
Industries/Verticals
Technology Service Provider
Non-profit
11%
Healthcare1%
6%
 Demographic data shows interest in
OpenStack no matter the industry / vertical.
 Industry representation was more heavily
skewed toward Technology Service Providers,
Energy & Utilities, and Manufacturing, which
totaled nearly half (48%) of respondents.
 Also well represented were the
Transportation (10%), Finance (7%) and
Healthcare (6%) industries.
 17% of respondents identified themselves
as Technology, with 11% identifying as a
service provider and the remaining 6% as
other.
Telco
1%
Energy & Utilities
18%
Technology - other
6%
Transportation
10%
Manufacturing
19%
Materials
5%
Professional
Services Government
Education
4%
2%
4%
Finance
7%
Consumer
6%
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About
Talligent
Talligent empowers enterprises and service providers to deploy production ready OpenStack clouds by dramatically improving the visibility and control of cloud
infrastructure consumption. We are OpenStack experts – we know its capabilities and are developing solutions that take advantage of OpenStack’s key benefits without
vendor lock-in. Talligent Openbook provides the functionality to turn your private or public cloud into an efficient and automated multi-tenant environment.
CloudCow
CloudCow is an online publication founded in 2011 and dedicated to the next generation data center environment. CloudCow is a comprehensive resource for cloud
computing news, analysis and information. The online publication provides IT professionals and executives with access to the latest information needed to make cloud
computing and IT business decisions within their respective organizations. Learn who the key players are in the industry, which products stand out above the rest, how
the various technologies work, and how cloud computing is being used today in real-world environments. Hear from industry experts and executives, and access the
latest news, articles, tips, white papers and Webinars covering all aspects of cloud computing. And get free access to CloudCow Hoofer, a comprehensive cloud
computing database of information. From time to time, CloudCow conducts industry surveys designed to gather information to help with IT priorities, strategies and
decision making capabilities.
VMblog
VMblog.com was founded in 2004 by David Marshall, a long time virtualization and cloud evangelist and industry recognized expert. Since that time, the website has
become known as one of the oldest and best independent resources on the web for finding the most up-to-date virtualization and cloud technology news and
information. As a dedicated voice for the virtualization and cloud communities, VMblog provides its audience with everything they need to know. At a high level,
VMblog offers decision makers with the information they need to make sound purchasing decisions, and at the same time also providing administrators, system
architects, IT managers and C-level management the best place to go to quickly get the latest breaking news and in-depth coverage of issues, trends, people, events,
whitepapers, webinars and products that span the full virtualization spectrum: from server, desktop, application, network and storage virtualization, as well as cloud
computing, containers, IoT and more.
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