OpenStack (previous CloudAve coverage) got a big boost today with the announcement that AT&T is joining the OpenStack community. According to a blog post by AT&T, they are becoming the first US Telco to join OpenStack community.
We also announced today that AT&T has become the first U.S. telecom services provider to join the OpenStack initiative, a community of more than 140 technology companies worldwide. Weâve been participating in OpenStack for more than a year and have already contributed a blueprint for a potential new function within OpenStack, focused on transactional task management.
Weâre housing our OpenStack capabilities on dedicated infrastructure in three AT&T data centers today, with locations in Dallas, San Diego and Secaucus, New Jersey. We plan to more than double the number of our centers with open-source capabilities in 2012.
My Quick Take:
After being either lethargic or clueless on cloud evolution, AT&T is waking up to the cloud reality and has understood that OpenStack is the fast PR way to get some good cloud and openness karma. Unlike Verizon, which has Terremark under its belt to talk cloud computing with enterprises, AT&T has no cloud credentials. A year or so back, myself, James Urquhart (now with enStratus and GigaOm) and Chirag Mehta (a fellow CloudAve blogger) were wondering during GigaOm’s Net:Work conference about how telcos are losing out on the cloud game in spite of having complete control over the pipes. Off late, I have been hearing from telco circles about how they can play a role in the evolving federated cloud ecosystem including taking a shot at the idea of a federated cloud marketplace (which is going to be the critical component of such a federated world). I would say AT&T’s move to cloud using OpenStack is the logical next step in the evolution of this thinking among the telcos and don’t be surprised if you see more and more telcos from around the world embrace OpenStack (Already many are in the process and I cannot talk about it). However, at this point, I am calling this move by AT&T a pure PR move because they didn’t even go to the news channels in coordination with OpenStack. OpenStack community just followed up AT&T announcement with a blog post linking to AT&T’s post. I am reserving my proper analysis on AT&T’s cloud (and OpenStack) strategy till I see/hear more from them. Till then, I am seeing it is a PR move needed to keep them in the cloud discussions. #enufsaid.
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