The OpenStack Summit has finally concluded and it leaves us with one important question: “What is the future of software-led Infrastructure?”

But first, what is Software-led Infrastructure?  Though the future will be made up of commodity hardware such Intel chips, ARM chips, Dell servers, HP servers, or Seagate drives, what will tie these all together are the software, APIs, and the software infrastructure that will allow hyperscale and cloud services to be provided.

There are a lot of categories in the software-led infrastructure bucket, such as open source platforms like OpenStack backed by Red Hat, HP and Rackspace; CloudStack which is led by Citrix, and Eucalyptus.  The second group is a cross between proprietary and open source programs like Cloud Foundry, backed by EMC and VMware.

The third category is the proprietary hyperscale software -led cloud providers such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft Azure.  The fourth is the open source hardware architecture like the Open Compute Foundation.

The fifth category is the proprietary hardware-software combination like VCE, Cisco, EMC, NetApp , HP’s converged infrastructure and Dell’s converged infrastructure.  And the last category is the proprietary hyperscale cloud infrastructure service providers like Amazon.

Wikibon Co-Founder and CTO David Floyer believes that Amazon is the main player when it comes to enterprise computing as it has a lot of customers, but there are a lot of emerging players such as OpenStack which already has a lot of interesting users such as Best Buy and NSA.

When asked what was the key takeaway in the just concluded OpenStack Summit, Floyer stated that is what OpenStack has succeeded in making by delivering “a software-led architecture that would not tie them in specific hardware which will allow them the flexibility to move quickly which is particularly important for cloud service providers.  They wanted the flexibility of being able to put it in and move it with very little friction.  They did not want the tie in of a proprietary database for 20-year tie in or a proprietary hardware with all the processes.  They wanted that to be something that, if it didn’t work, they could slot something else in.”

For more of Floyer’s analysis, checkout the full replay of this morning’s Live NewsDesk Show with Kristin Feledy, below.