The OpenStack mission:
to produce the ubiquitous Open Source Cloud Computing platform that
enables building interoperable public and private clouds regardless of
size, by being simple to implement and massively scalable while serving
the cloud users’ needs
This is what I most strongly identify with OpenStack.
A value is one's judgment of what is important in life.
OpenStack states some values; which I think are also good:
Open Source - License; because IANAL
Open Design - Summits are fun; if you have a spec
Open Development - Patches welcome
Open Community - Let's talk; we're nice!
... the four opens are pretty great - but it's not what I feel called to
do - it's not what I'm about. I just think that in order to build out
that ubiquitous platform; where the open source cloud is found
everywhere ... no one company can do that? So we better have a good
strategy for a community if we're gunna do this thing.
And that's what I come to when I think about "what is OpenStack" - I
don't think about the software that OpenStack produces. To me OpenStack
is a phenomenon - because I literally do not understand the cause or
explanation for why this thing took off like it did?
Maybe I think there's just a lot of hackers out there that all feel like
I do - that building this thing is important (to society?) - and that
they can make a meaningful contribution.
OpenStack is a system to organize the people committed to the mission.
The result is OpenStack software - not all of which is good - some of it
might not even be useful - but if it was done with a passion for the
mission and according to the values - we should be happy to call it
OpenStack.
Or maybe it's the money.
Maybe it's the system to organize the profit-generating-organisms that
feed the hackers committed to the mission, the astroturf, the latch your
wagon^Wdriver-plugin onto it while it's hot, the cushy arm-chair
architect pontificate on the grand unified theory of exception logging,
the ego of the -2, the paycheck, the passport to hang with friends
around a whiteboard.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the market is happily shipping AWS so much
money Google and Microsoft can't mount a reasonable defense - Rackspace
is going to tap out and HP already gave up.
If we're still committed to the mission - we have got to focus on our
deployments.
Nothing tells you more about what's important than working with real
deployments. The people operating OpenStack software are the best
resource we have to cut through the junk and deal with what matters.
If you're not at least partially engaged with the delivery, deployment
and operation of OpenStack software I strongly recommend you have a talk
with your manager - or seek a different employer.
Listen to the operators. Ignore everything else. Ignore internal
organizational boundaries. Ignore your direct manager. Ignore the TC.
Ignore me. Listen to the operators.
- and we have to keep after the mission - if they do not continue to
deploy OpenStack software - then none of this matters.
