The OpenStack community is going through a period of both growth and uncertainty. The community is doing some soul searching to determine where to go next, and how to get there.

Today marked the beginning of the OpenStack Days: Silicon Valley 2016 event, a conference developed to support the OpenStack community, as well as to discuss and determine the future. Discussing the thematic topics of the conference and the guests to come at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, were John Furrier (@furrier) and Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team.

A changing business model

The introduction of the cloud has been shaking things up in the industry for a long time, and now it’s impacting the very business model of enterprises.

“As enterprises shift to cloud, their revenue models have to be aligned with how people consume,” said Furrier. In this case, the model is that of subscription services consolidating around what consumers are expecting.

‘Culture of survivors’

This shift in the business model is one example of how those involved with the OpenStack movement are what Furrier calls survivors. “They’re in turbulent waters in terms of how it’s growing, but have been able to keep zigging and zagging at the right times,” he added.

With the ability to navigate the waters so well, they have thus far been able to prove the many naysayers wrong. The question, according to Furrier, is: Can they reduce the complexity of getting the technology into the hands of customers? Can they continue to zig and zag with such precise timing?

These and other hard questions will be put to theCUBE guests today, and the answers are sure to be intriguing. The lineup for today intentionally includes those from all angles of the ecosystem, as well as from small companies to large corporations such as Walmart. It’s sure to be an interesting conference, so stay tuned.

Watch the complete interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the OpenStack Days: Silicon Valley 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE