Cloud is the future, and learning to navigate this new market is a question IT companies are seriously pondering. During OpenStack Silicon Valley 2015, Boris Renski, cofounder and CMO of Mirantis, Inc., and Jonathan Donaldson, VP & GM of  Software Defined Infrastructure at Intel, sat down with theCUBE’s John Furrier.

OpenStack is the future

The future of Cloud integration is inevitable. Both Renski and Donaldson have been in the thick of discussing this inevitability with costumers. Navigating the murky waters of a new market can be tricky. “The open Cloud fabric of the future is OpenStack,” said Renski. “According to a recent market survey, when people think of private Cloud, they think of free options. And the free options are VMware, Microsoft, and OpenStack.”

Standardizing Cloud

Although standardizing Cloud seems like the best approach, Renski cautions against completely going that route at this point in time. Although there has to be some degree of prescriptiveness, the market is still new.

“The most dangerous thing is to assume something is a standard before it’s become a standard,” said Renski. The ideal vision will be to standardize, but the market is changing so rapidly that it’s not a very wise strategy as this point. According to Renski, OpenStack’s approach has been to create the glue for different components, then leaving options as far as SDN, storage, etc., open and flexible. Over time, standards will emerge.

Cars and Cloud analogy

Donaldson compared the development of Cloud solutions for businesses to buying a car. Just like someone would want certain brands or models of vehicles, faster and sleek or more economic and affordable — so, too, people will be able to have Cloud package solutions for their particular wants and needs.

However, the industry will need to be careful about providing too many choices. “Choice is great,” said Donaldson. “Too much choice is really, really bad. You get the ‘choices paralysis.’”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the OpenStack Silicon Valley 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE