OpenStack has released the thirtieth version of its open source infrastructure management platform called Dalmatian. The platform opens the doors for companies tired of VMware.

The OpenStack community has released the latest version of its open source cloud infrastructure software called OpenStack Dalmatian. It’s a celebratory start because Dalmatian is already version number thirty. 500 parties are putting their heads together to improve the software, from companies you’d expect, like Red Hat, the lead contributor, and Nvidia, to companies you’d less associate with software development, like Walmart.

We hardly need to say it in 2024, but OpenStack Dalmatian’s code words are AI and security. This release offers improvements in AI and HPC workloads, security and user experience and comes at a time when demand for OpenStack is surging.

irony

OpenStack Dalmatian is intended to support compute-intensive tasks such as AI and HPC workloads. To this end, according to OpenStack, the platform is introducing a new Skyline user interface that offers improvements for managing cloud environments and is already popular among users. The intended safety improvements in the Ironic and Neutron components.

For example, Ironic now requires encrypted rescue passwords and allows firmware updates on active nodes. This helps in applying security patches. Nova, another key OpenStack component, now supports virtual Trusted Platform Modules (vTPM), offering more options for secure connections.

For AI and HPC workloads, Dalmatian introduces improvements in support for GPU instances and virtual GPUs. This makes it easier to train AI systems on hardware accelerators, which is critical for companies focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Influx of VMware

OpenStack has the wind in its sails and Broadcom has Broadcom to thank for that. Customers fed up with the antics of VMware’s new parent company look for alternatives and often end up with OpenStack. The platform is growing rapidly: the market for OpenStack is estimated at $22.81 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $91.44 billion by 2029.

The OpenInfra Foundation, the organization driving the development of OpenStack, is itself surprised by the sudden success. “That VMware would bring about a revival of OpenStack was not on my bingo card for 2024.” Broadcom has brought a lot of uncertainty to the enterprise IT market,” said CEO Jonathan Bryce in an interview with TechCrunch.