When it comes to cloud computing and open source software, Citrix Systems had hoped to position its CloudStack effort against OpenStack, a more broadly known alternative. But today, Citrix exited the CloudStack vs OpenStack war.
Indeed, Citrix has sold Citrix CloudPlatform and CloudPortal Business Manager to Persistent Systems. CloudPlatform essentially is the Citrix commercial version of CloudStack.
The big questions:
- Will Citrix still advocate CloudStack for open source cloud projects, or will the company fade from this market debate?
- Will Persistent find new and unique ways to position CloudPlatform without having to compete head-on against commercial OpenStack distributions?
Citrix, Persistent: Mum So Far
Neither company is saying much so far. Persistent apparently disclosed the CloudPlatform and CloudPortal Business Manager buy in a regulatory filing. Citrix Systems, meanwhile, has not publicly disclosed nor confirmed the asset sale.
Still, statements could be coming soon. Citrix Summit 2016, a major customer and partner conference, is kicking off this week in Las Vegas. It's a safe bet that Citrix leadership will discuss specific strategic assets and focus areas -- along with offerings that apparently have been sold off.
OpenStack vs CloudStack: Battle Over?
Meanwhile, the OpenStack vs CloudStack battle doesn't seem like much of a battle these days. Some pundits see value in both cloud platforms. But most of the market buzz these days involves OpenStack -- and now always in a positive way.
OpenStack, although better known than CloudStack, has faced its own challenges as big public clouds like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and IBM SoftLayer continue to gain popularity.
Consulting and distribution providers like Mirantis have performed well, but early pioneers like Rackspace have been pulled in multiple directions. Rackspace, for instance, has focused more heavily on managed services for third-party clouds rather than OpenStack evangelism in recent months.
