Open Source And Cloud Computing: Ubuntu Eucalyptus Divorce Finalized

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When Canonical (previous CloudAve coverage) announced sometime back that they will support OpenStack in the Ubuntu Enterprise Edition, pundits were wondering about the fate of Eucalyptus in UEC. When Eucalyptus announced partnership with RedHat, I thought it was a right move with Ubuntu cozying up with OpenStack.

Then, there is the question of “Why RedHat when there is already a deeper collaboration with Ubuntu?” and I asked Marten about it. He categorically told me that both RedHat and Canonical are their partners but he differentiated the market segments where Eucalyptus consider them as the right partners. He told me that they see RedHat as a stronger player in the enterprise space and Ubuntu as a stronger player in the mobile and web space. He said Eucalyptus is partnering with both the Linux vendors to target these different segments. However, my personal view is that Canonical is clearlymaking a push in the enterprise market with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud and till sometime back, they were leading RedHat in the buzzdom because of lack of cloud computing efforts from the RedHat side. With the reports of Canonical embracing OpenStack, it is time for Eucalyptus to reach out to other Linux vendors with a clear cloud strategy. Eucalyptus is doing just that and with RedHat being a clear leader in the enterprise space, it greatly helps Eucalyptus’ strategy as they try to penetrate deeper into the enterprise market in the coming year. In short, it is an interesting move by Eucalyptus and I am expecting them to compete hard with OpenStack in creating buzz in the tech media in 2011.

Well, it is official now. Canonical and Eucalyptus are moving towards a slow divorce as Canonical finds OpenStack more attractive than Eucalyptus. Today, Ubuntu Project announced that they will use OpenStack as the foundation technology for cloud from October release of Ubuntu 11.10. Those with private clouds based on Ubuntu and Eucalyptus need not worry. They will offer maintenance support and, in the case of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, this will continue through to April 2015. Eucalyptus will remain within Ubuntu and will be available for users who prefer this technology. Also, Ubuntu will provide tools to automate the migration process to the Ubuntu Server 11.10 release when it is released in October 2011.

I think it is a smart move by Canonical. OpenStack is expected to take the federated cloud ecosystem by storm, starting in 2012. By closely aligning themselves with OpenStack, Canonical is hoping to become the go to flavor of the cloud. With RedHat announcing their own IaaS offering last week, it will be interesting to see Eucalyptus’ moves in the coming months.

Update: Here is Marten Mickos’s (CEO, Eucalyptus) statement on this.