With rising security concerns about the OpenStack open-source cloud computing software and the cloud, specifically surrounding data residency and data disposal, Mark Collier (pictured), the OpenStack Foundation’s chief operating officer, recently affirmed that OpenStack is, in fact, a stable layer in open-source projects.

“You can do so many more things with it, and OpenStack solves a very specific, very important layer, which is that kind of traditional infrastructure as a service layer,” Collier said. “But once you automate that, it’s proven, it’s reliable, you could run millions of cores with it like some of our users are doing.”

Collier spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host John Troyer (@jtroyer), chief reckoner at TechReckoning, at OpenStack Summit in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They discussed OpenStack’s role in the cloud world and what’s next for OpenStack within that role. (* Disclosure below.)

Open infrastructure

While many have questioned the purpose of OpenStack in the container and cloud market, Collier maintained the use of OpenStack. And within OpenStack’s doors, the view has shifted to the future. What can be done to build on top of OpenStack has become the focus now that it has a solid foundation, according to Collier.

OpenStack’s newest development is OpenLab, “an initiative that puts together OpenStack, Kubernetes [container management platform], and other pieces, like Terraform [infrastructure as code software], and [then] does constant end-to-end testing on it,” Collier said.

That’s really how to ensure which combinations work well together, he added. “And sometimes you just find bugs, and it turns out a couple of changes need to be made upstream in Kubernetes or in OpenStack,” Collier explained.

Therefore, when concerns arise over containers and the cloud, Collier points to methods and developments such as OpenLab. OpenLab shows how open-source technology like OpenStack relies on other technology developments, developers and infrastructures to produce functioning, solid pieces of technology, he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of OpenStack Summit. (* Disclosure: The OpenStack Foundation sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither the OpenStack Foundation nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE