Open Stack

On 10/26/2012 8:30 AM, Thierry Carrez wrote:
> Mark McLoughlin wrote:
>> All of the instructions to Heat about how to orchestrate the launching
>> of an app are supplied as part of the "run my Wordpress app" request in
>> the form of a "template" file. If you know AWS CloudFormations, then you
>> know how this works. Heat borrows heavily from it.
> The main issue I see with us entering this space is that there are many
> competing solutions out there. I'm not entirely convinced there is that
> much value in OpenStack picking one and somehow making the others
> second-class...
>
> In particular, the argument could be made that the priority should be in
> providing the basic services that IaaS is about (together with the
> supporting services that are necessary to run those), while leaving the
> client/management/orchestration/deployment space to an ecosystem of
> competing solutions.

This argument has validity, but the issue of embracing one solution for 
a problem vs
letting many flowers bloom is a double-edged sword because it is not 
always helpful to users.
Heat is really a higher-level API for users of OpenStack. With my user 
hat on, I would
much rather see resources go into a single strong API then be scattered 
among multiple APIs that will
likely not be as strong and will splinter the interoperability of the 
skills of the user community.
I presume this was at least part of the argument for requiring all core 
projects to use Python.

Competitors such as Amazon are free to make
that tradeoff as they see fit. We need to make sure OpenStack competes 
in the ease-of-use space.
The Technical Committee will evaluate projects on a case-by-case basis, 
but I hope they
will consider the impact on the user community and competitive landscape.

  -David