HP pledges allegiance to OpenStack cloud

Joins Cisco, Citrix and Dell.

HP Wednesday revealed it has put its support behind the OpenStack cloud, the open source cloud infrastructure project.

HP joining the Rackspace-led OpenStack cloud, which celebrated its first anniversary this month, gives the open source cloud initiative the backing of many of the IT industry's largest players.

"HP recognizes that open and interoperable cloud infrastructure and services are critical in delivering the next generation of cloud-based services to developers, businesses and consumers," Emil Sayegh, HP's Cloud Services vice president, wrote in a blog post." 

"It is our belief that close collaboration with developer communities combined with HP's global portfolio are cornerstones to delivering the right, seamless and secure experiences for our customers."

Sayegh said HP is in a unique position to bring together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the point where the cloud and connectivity converge. HP said teaming with OpenStack and its roughly 90 participating organisations and 1,200 participants will give HP customers more opportunities to get into the cloud.

"HP is taking an active role in the OpenStack community and we see this as an opportunity to enable customers, partners and developers with unique infrastructure and development solutions across public, private and hybrid cloud environments," Sayegh wrote.

HP said it will also sponsor the OpenStack Design Summit and OpenStack Conference later this year.

HP now joins companies including Cisco, Citrix and Dell backing OpenStack.

HP's signing on for OpenStack comes as Dell launches the Dell OpenStack Infrastructure Cloud Solution, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service play that comprises the OpenStack cloud operating system; cloud-optimized Dell PowerEdge C servers; a new Dell-developed OpenStack installer called "Crowbar;" and services from Dell and Rackspace Cloud Builders.

Other companies have also recently launched products and services build around the OpenStack cloud.

This week, Gluster unveiled the Gluster Connector for OpenStack, which provides highly scalable and highly-available VM storage functionality for OpenStack.

Additionally, former NASA CTO Chris Kemp, one of the lead engineers for OpenStack, this week launched a new company called Nebula, which will make an OpenStack hardware appliance to enable companies to deploy large private cloud infrastructures from thousands of computers. In addition to supporting commodity servers from various enterprise vendors, Nebula will support Facebook's Open Compute platform.

This article originally appeared at crn.com