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Scoble Weighs in on OpenStack, Amazon and the API Wars
Latest gold member of OpenStack Foundation is information protection company Symantec

Scoble Weighs in on OpenStack, Amazon and the API Wars

The chatter continues regarding the future course of OpenStack. A week after Cloudscaling's Randy Bias called on the OpenStack community to focus on compatibility with Amazon's APIs, Rackspace's Robert Scoble has responded with an open letter of his own.

The chatter continues regarding the future course of OpenStack. A week after Cloudscaling's Randy Bias called on the OpenStack community to focus on compatibility with Amazon's APIs, tech blogger Robert Scoble has responded with an open letter of his own. Scoble works for Rackspace, a primary backer of the OpenStack project, but also spends much of his time interviewing companies that run cloud infrastructure on Amazon Web Services. In addressing the options for OpenStack, Scoble cited conversations with Amazon customers like Mindtouch's Aaron Fulkerson and Don MacAskill of SmugMug, who are looking for solutions that can bring radical improvements to their fast-growing infrastructures.

"Even with hundreds of companies working together and this investment in code, R&D, and money OpenStack has limited resources," Scoble writes. "It's clear we have two philosophies that are conflicting here. One wants those limited resources to be spent on making APIs compatible with Amazon. One wants those limited resources to be spent on making new cloud systems that will have a 10x return for people like Aaron and Don.

"If you believe cloud innovation is slowing down, you should listen to Randy Bias because there will be huge value in providing an API alternative, not an innovation alternative, if that is the case," writes Scoble. "If you believe, like I do, that we are going to see more change in cloud infrastructure in the next five years than in the past 10, then keep investing in real innovation and keep pushing to bring the contextual age to the world."

The conversation continues ... What's your take? Share your thoughts in our comments.

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