A technology might show lot of potential, but its commercial success in certain market segments is driven by a varied set of factors. Take OpenStack, the technology that comes to mind when we talk about private clouds, for example. The technology has all the right ideas for it to be the primary choice of implementation for any private cloud. However, its proliferation into enterprises with private cloud needs/implementations is still not up to the mark.
In this Gartner Blog Network article (that is almost a couple of months old), Alessandro Perilli discusses various factors that are deterring OpenStack from being at a place where it should be in enterprises. Beyond the views of Alessandro, one of the comments summarizes the challenges for OpenStack Governance Board – not having a firm say in limiting the features (and scope) and eventually trying to chew too many features. Right from the day the article is published, there is a good amount of discussion for/against the views expressed in the article. One resounding agreement across the fences is that OpenStack still has lot of potential for commercial success in enterprises. People at large enterprises might love the OpenStack technology, but never get to the level of advocating strongly for making it the first choice.
The year ahead is going to be an interesting time for private cloud implementations. Hope OpenStack uses this year to the fullest potential and makes itself a widely implemented solution within large enterprises.