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Message #11384
Re: 3rd Party APIs
On May 8, 2012, at 1:09 PM, Doug Davis wrote:
Mark McLoughlin wrote on 05/08/2012 10:58:45 AM:
...
> What I'd like to see us get to is:
>
> Deep overlap between the OpenStack developer community and the
> community of folks drafting whatever IaaS standard(s) wind up
being
> dominant.
>
> e.g. prominent, active Nova developers developers contributing
to the
> CIMI or OCCI standards and bringing the needs of OpenStack to the
> standard and bringing ideas from the standards process to
OpenStack.
>
> This isn't a question of asking existing OpenStack developers to
join
> these standards bodies. It's about enabling members of those
standards
> bodies to become as much a part of OpenStack as any other developer.
>
> How to do that? Encourage members the various standards
communities to
> actively contribute an implementation of their standard to OpenStack
> and, more importantly, stick around to become an ongoing active
member
> of the OpenStack developer community.
...
One of the first things we noticed in our CIMI work was that pretty
much
every IaaS input contribution was basically the same - not
syntactically
but semantically. This made our lives so much easier. It's also
evidenced
by the fact that adapter projects (like DeltaCloud) can exist. If
there wasn't
semantic similarities between all of those IaaS providers then I doubt
DC would be able to work.
So, why am I bringing this up? Because while I agree with Mark that
getting
standards folks into OS is a good idea, I think having it be a good
two-way
communication is even better. Meaning, I think it would be good for
Nova
folks to find a way to influence the standards too. Just as I'm sure
some Nova guys are already running from their keyboards at the
prospect of
talking to standards weenies :-) I know there are plenty of
standards folks
who will never join Openstack (for a variety of technical and
business reasons).
Yet for the sake of the broader community I think we need to find a
way to make
them work together.
Additionally, and now the hard part, I think it would be good for
people to
realize that there is a spot in the middle where both sides can
meet. Having
looked at a variety of IaaS APIs, and more recently looking at how
CIMI can map
to Nova, I'm (again) struck at how similar they are. And if I were
to play
God for a moment, I'd slap both sides upside their heads and tell
them to
each bend a little and find a spot in the middle. CIMI can change,
and Nova
can change - after all, it's just an API.
...
-Doug Davis
dug@xxxxxxxxxx
I will make the same offer on behalf of the OCCI folks, many of whom
are active contributors of code to various interoperability projects
including OpenStack (see for example the link below). In SDOs we can
do our work most effectively and efficiently in two-way communication
with people who want to implement them, and only work of this nature
can force the various SDOs doing work to apply Occam's Razor and go
for the simplest -- and preferably most featureful and elegant --
solution.
http://occi-wg.org/2012/04/17/occi-openstack-demo/
The OpenStack community says right on the front its website that it
aims to be a project to drive standards. Most SDOs are quite open to
being driven and responsive to needs, so please keep driving! (But
don't stop at the level of what works for a particular project or
demonstration code -- if you want it to be truly interoperable, it's
got to work across multiple projects! So please think beyond the "Not
Invented Here" mentality, and as Doug says, work with us so that we
can bring these standards together and make them work for you, as well
as for other code and infrastructures that are out there.
SPeaking for the OGF community, we are completely dedicated to working
in an open setting with OpenStack and any other infrastructure project
that aims to build effective, interoperable code for distributed
computing. That is the entire focus and mission of OGF, as an Open
Forum. We are also committed to building partnerships and working
relationships with other SDOs, such as DMTF, TM Forum, ITU-T, ISO,
SNIA, and have many such organizational partnerships in place already.
For real work, the Cloud Plugfests are a good opportunity to do code-
oriented developemnt that results in real exchange of information with
other partners. For registration and information, please see the sign-
up form that is currently hosted on the SNIA site:
http://snia.org/cloud/cloudplugfest
A dedicated Cloud Plugfest site is close to completion and will be
announced shortly. (Multiple SDOs and organizations welcome!)
Beyond this, except for the possible physical intervention suggested
by Doug's post (grin), I am in complete agreement with the thoughts
behind it!
Links:
http://occi-wg.org
http://ogf.org/
http://ogf.org/OGF35/
http://ogf.org/OGF35/
http://cloud-standards.org
Alan Sill, Ph.D
Vice President of Standards, Open Grid Forum
Senior Scientist, High Performance Computing Center
Adjunct Professor of Physics, TTU
====================================================================
: Alan Sill, Texas Tech University Office: Drane 162, MS 4-1167 :
: e-mail: Alan.Sill@xxxxxxx ph. 806-834-5940 fax 806-834-4358 :
====================================================================
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