As a popular system for connecting private clouds, OpenStack’s open-source community has spent considerable time and effort expanding its reach when it comes to providing solutions. Now, at OpenStack Summit — Austin, the current state of OpenStack is on display.

To discuss what OpenStack has to offer and where it might go, Stu Miniman (@stu), Brian Gracely (@bgracely), and John Walls, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, came together at the end of the event’s second day.

Community and ecosystem

Gracely noted that while OpenStack has a space in the tech world, other companies are also doing their own thing, and doing it well. He said that collaboration, and staying out of each other’s way, will be vital to solving big problems.

Miniman provided the perspective that “if OpenStack was a startup, it would be dead by now,” because customers want to do too many things with the product to effectively support it. As an open-source project, however, that’s actually helping to aim developer resources and attention at OpenStack. Unfortunately, he noted, this division makes it tough to track down how much money is in the ecosystem.

Momentum and the market

Miniman mentioned he was excited to see where OpenStack has gone and the momentum it’s gained. It’ll be just as exciting, he said, to see where it will end up. Gracely reinforced this idea of momentum, saying communities do well when they’re diverse, with a wide range of ideas and backgrounds. That the OpenStack community has these conversations out in the open, he said, is a good thing.

The market will say where things go, Miniman said, but the OpenStack market is still just a small fraction of the tech world’s budget. People are trying new things with OpenStack, he continued, and there’s a feedback loop. Companies are close to their customers in the open-source community, and this transparency, he said, reveals the strengths and flaws of the product.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of OpenStack Summit — Austin. And make sure to weigh in during theCUBE’s live coverage at the event by joining in on CrowdChat.

Photo by SiliconANGLE