Cloud API Fight at GigaOm Structure

One of the more entertaining sessions was on  Cloud APIs.

API WARS: DELIVERING THE DE FACTO STANDARD

 

OpenStack. CloudStack. Amazon now lets Eucalyptus customers link their private clouds to AWS. The cloud industry has grown up, and after six years, Amazon is still on top. Do the open-source efforts have a chance, or is this recent fragmentation the last straw?

Moderated by:Jo Maitland - Research Director, GigaOM Pro
Speakers:Sameer Dholakia - Group VP and GM, Cloud Platforms Group, Citrix
 
Chris C. Kemp - CEO, Nebula and Co-Founder, OpenStack
 
Marten Mickos - CEO, Eucalyptus Systems 

The video is here.

Watch live streaming video from gigaomstructure at livestream.com

If you don't want to watch the video here is a post on the presentation.

If AWS is the WalMart of cloud, is OpenStack the Soviet Union?

Some of the most dynamic part of the presentation was this discussion..

Kemp took Citrix and Eucalyptus to task for reinforcing Amazon’s dominance rather than embracing the OpenStack project. As you can imagine, Eucalyptus Systems CEO Marten Mickos and Citrix Systems Cloud Platforms Group GM Sameer Dholakia took exception to Kemp’s claims, particularly his characterization of their cloud platforms as closed.

Both pointed out that their platforms are open-source, just like OpenStack, but Kemp refused to accept that definition, saying the companies developed the core of platform internally and then released their software to the open-source community. Kemp contrasted that with the OpenStack, which is developed top-to-bottom by its broad membership with no large company having any outsized influence.