The first challenge was to gain overall knowledge of OpenStack in order to deploy and manage it. The second, much bigger challenge was to orchestrate a private cloud at Orange with OpenStack as its middleware as well as various other tools and processes for a real world use case scenario.
OpenStack is a set of modules which can be deployed in various ways. Which is the right way to deploy OpenStack was a key challenge.
Our aim was to deploy and to complement OpenStack with further, customized components in order to create a private cloud at Orange which would provide multiple, complex services to its internal customers: moving from IaaS middleware to Cloud services embracing infrastructure management, Cloud offers management and customer onboarding.
A telecom relies on Mirantis as a key partner partner to streamline our learning curve. Our collaboration included trainings, OpenStack Fuel as the deployment mechanism as well as development of a VxLAN plugin. Picking a partner who has in-depth expertise in deploying OpenStack in production at scale is of high importance for the success of a large enterprise grade OpenStack project.
Also, our collaboration with Mirantis helped us better understand how to collaborate with the OpenStack community and to contribute upstream - for example by providing manifests for OpenStack Fuel. Our goal is to share components we develop in order to make OpenStack better and more viable in coming years.
