OpenInfra Summit Berlin showcases the production reliability of OpenStack

As the audience settled in for the opening keynote at OpenInfra Summit Berlin last week, they saw a graph on the main screen showing OpenStack starting the Slope of Enlightenment. In the Gartner Hype Cycle, the Slope of Enlightenment is the fourth phase of technology maturity, just before mainstream adoption.

Similarly, throughout the conference, OpenStack’s maturity was a common theme. In his keynote, OpenInfra Foundation executive director Jonathan Bryce highlighted OpenStack’s recent 10th anniversary and growing adoption, with more than 250 million cores in production and a robust $7.7B market. You could also see the maturity of OpenStack in what developers were working on. Whereas in previous summits, developer talks were mostly about fixing problems in the core functionality of OpenStack, last week developers primarily discussed advanced capabilities like GPU reservation, AI/ML, and data sovereignty.

Mirantis out in full force

Mirantis made a strong showing in Berlin as a premier sponsor of the summit, sponsoring the event T-shirts as well as the very popular Biergarten. We also contributed to the conference through eight presentations, which ranged from edge computing and AI/ML to container infrastructure and security.

It was standing room only at The Robots Are Coming (But Not Yet), or, Don’t Make Smart People Do Dumb Things, presented by Mirantis Field CTO Shaun O’Meara. He discussed what AIOps is, what it will be able to do someday, and how it relates to the intelligent automation we can use today. Learn more in Shaun’s interview on TFiR and download the slides.

Another popular talk from Mirantis that generated a lot of audience interaction was Build an inexpensive carrier-WiFi network on your laptop with Magma, presented by network architect Wojciech Nawrot. He explained how to build a fully functional carrier-WiFi lab using inexpensive supplies, such as a pre-owned enterprise-class WiFi access point, blank USIM cards, Android/iOS phones, a home router, etc. If you’d like to try it yourself, download the project documentation and view the slides.

Below is a list of the other Mirantis presentations, with links to any slide decks. We'll update with more recordings when available.

• Building a Framework for Big Infra Decisions
  Learn how to develop a framework for matching infrastructure solutions to your specific needs. View Slides

• Using Lens to Collaborate on Managed Kubernetes Clusters in Minutes (Demo)
  See how the open source Lens Kubernetes IDE enables teams to view, manage, monitor, and share access to a cluster hosted on a managed Kubernetes service like AWS or Azure.

• Sturdy Clouds: Creating Resilient Software-Defined Data Centers
  Find out best practices for ensuring your data centers remain secure and available even in uncertain environments. View Slides

• How Obsolete is your Cloud?
  Learn about making an informed decision on what to reuse and what to upgrade, and how to build the optimum environment for 2022 and beyond. View Slides

• Eliminate Kubernetes Complexity for Developers
  In this session, we demonstrate several development workflows that developers can begin to leverage to improve their experience working with Kubernetes. View Slides

• Launch a Data Center as a Service with a Global Footprint in Minutes
  Deploy a private cloud based on Open Source technologies in a matter of minutes, in one or multiple locations across the world, with features similar to those of any of the major public cloud providers. View Slides

We also enjoyed connecting with people at our booth or in meetings, where we discussed topics like edge computing, bare metal provisioning, NFV, and new feature requests. We spoke with a lot of cloud architects from the financial services and telecommunications industries, including many enterprises that already had projects ready to go.

Thanks to everyone who joined our happy hours in the Biergarten! We hope you enjoyed the chance to unwind and meet other members of the community.

Market trends

In surveying the presentations, examining the exhibit stands, and talking to people, we noticed a couple of market trends. First, there is a growing emphasis on security, with a lot of talks focused on topics such as confidential computing, encryption, and secure software supply chains. We also saw a lot of actual work happening in the community on FIPS compliance and encryption. Telco topics are still big, but less hyped up compared with previous years. We also saw a lot of interest in edge computing, especially in telecommunications.

Overall, we had an excellent experience at our first in-person OpenInfra event in two years. We met a lot of great people (including many diehard OpenStack fans!) and enjoyed both sharing our expertise and learning about the needs of different organizations. Most of all, it was fantastic to see the community together again, flourishing around the world, and reaching new levels of maturity.

If you’d like to try OpenStack enhanced with Kubernetes, get started here.

Additional photos