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In the cloud computing market, upgrades are supposed to be instantaneous — with little or no impact to end-customers. But when it comes to OpenStack, the open source cloud computing environment, early adopters and cloud consultants are discovering that upgrading from one OpenStack release to the next release can sometimes be a difficult, time-consuming process. That’s where companies like Mirantis and Dell (promoter of Crowbar) potentially enter the picture. Here's why.

Roughly 1,000 technology experts gathered at an OpenStack technology conference last week, and some of those conference attendees believe OpenStack coupled with KVM (Kernel-based virtual machine) or Xen will trip up VMware within the next couple of years. But VMware will be tough to catch. Here's why.

OpenStack community leaders say they are desperate to find and train more open source cloud experts — and there could also be need for an OpenStack certification. Here is why.

When Oracle CEO Larry Ellison started poking around the Linux market way back in 1998 or so, he turned to Wim Coekaerts for help. Fast forward to the present, and more than 8,500 customers run Oracle Linux. Here's what's next.

When Rackspace launched new cloud services on OpenStack this week, the company essentially declared war against proprietary cloud computing platforms and closed systems. Here's why.

I have a confession: I believe in OpenStack — the open source cloud platform. But I’m not suggesting that it will dominate cloud computing. Similar to how the Linux industry evolved to support multiple distributions (Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu, etc.), I believe the cloud computing industry will support many open source options — OpenStack, Citrix CloudStack, Eucalyptus, and additional options from Red Hat, VMware and so on.

As of next month, Canonical’s Ubuntu One file-syncing service will be 3 years old. Since its introduction it has evolved considerably and taken some unexpected turns. At this juncture, then, it seems appropriate to ask: What is Ubuntu One, exactly? What makes it different and where is it headed in the future? Read on for some thoughts.

When Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers and other executives take the stage at this week’s Cisco Partner Summit, I wonder: Will Cisco executives arrive with Cius tablets? The answer to that question could reveal how Cisco is feeling about its purpose-built tablets, which run Google Android. Here's the update.

Over the past year, I’ve watched closely as Microsoft’s two flagship cloud platforms — Office 365 and Windows Azure — gained anecdotal momentum. But here’s the challenge from Microsoft: It seems like the cloud computing world has increasingly gone open source. Here's the mounting evidence.

According to survey results released earlier this year, Ubuntu still has a lot of room to grow in the cloud space. But it seems to be doing just that, the latest indicator being HP’s release of cloud products based partially on Ubuntu. Here’s the scoop, and why it matters for the Ubuntu world in particular.

Can Oracle ever leapfrog Red Hat and VMware in the Linux and virtualization markets? Hmmm… before The VAR Guy takes a stab at answering those questions, he needs to track down Wim Coekaerts, senior VP of Oracle’s Linux and virtualization initiatives. Here's why.

As Linux users look forward to the release later in April 2012 of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Canonical’s decision to cease sponsoring Kubuntu as an official Ubuntu variant has passed largely under the radar — a sign, perhaps, that Kubuntu’s user base is small. But as the first member of the Ubuntu family to lose official endorsement, where is Kubuntu headed? And more importantly, what does its departure mean for the Ubuntu brand as a whole? Read on for some analysis.

OpenStack, the open source cloud platform, is beginning to attract an ecosystem of IT consultants, integrators and deployment specialists who can help customers with public cloud and private cloud projects. Key examples include ApriorIT, Cloud9ers, Grid Dynamics, Hastexo Professional Services, Mirantis and Piston Cloud Computing. Here's the update.

Gartner has released a new worldwide tablet sales forecast, covering 2012 through 2016. But… Can you really trust a Gartner forecast for a bunch of products that don’t exist (example: Windows 8 tablets) and a product family whose future is at risk (example: RIM QNX). Here’s a reality check.

How exactly did CloudStack promoter Citrix Systems go from super-boring (multi-user software and the ICA protocol) to extremely strategic (desktops as a service, virtualization, mobile computing, collaboration and cloud computing)? Here's the answer.

Verio is partnering with Citrix CloudStack to launch Cloudn, a cloud services platform that’s available now exclusively to partners. Verio joins a growing list of cloud services providers that are backing Citrix CloudStack, an open source cloud platform that is widely considered a rival to OpenStack. Here are details.

Hewlett-Packard officially launched the HP Converged Cloud and HP Public Cloud strategies on April 10. The HP Public Cloud is built on OpenStack and will include a MySQL relational database service that competes with Microsoft SQL Azure and other cloud database platforms. Here are details.

How’s this for ironic: The new HP Public Cloud will promote MySQL databases as a service, essentially leveraging Oracle’s software to compete with the Microsoft SQL Azure cloud, among other public cloud database services. HP and Oracle essentially hate each other. But here's why HP embraced MySQL.

A Red Hat Storage 2.0 beta with Big Data and Apache Hadoop support is now available. So what is Red Hat trying to achieve in the storage market, and where do partners potentially fit into the story? Here are some educated guesses.

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) recently became the world’s first $1 billion open source company. Now, the folks at SUSE, promoter of the rival Linux distribution, are seeking some bragging rights of their own. Indeed, SUSE says it now has more than 9,200 certified third-party applications and supports over 13,500 hardware, storage and networking devices. Impressive. But is SUSE in growth mode? Here's some analysis.