EvolutionStack - USDABuilding a Bazaar in the Cathedral
The teamIntroductions….
Who we support...
USDA / NITCIn the beginning…
● NITC dates back to 1957● Primarily mainframe shop ● Grew into a traditional hosting center● Slow and steady
Shifting Customer Needs● Customers wanted fast, flexible, agile and
cheap hostingo Customer independence required!o Customers want Amazon but in Govt. space
Not Keeping Up● What customers got…
o Virtualized version of old Managed Hosting producto Lots of iterationso Long path to productiono IT / Business processes don’t align
HopeStackThe dream begins…
● Hallway convos, smoke breaks○ What is this “OpenStack” thing…?
● A few believe in the idea of a revolution
All bets on the table...● Zach shares idea
o Wagers parking space for 5 min. with the ACIO● Leadership vision
o They can see beyond the red tape!● Team is selected to evaluate idea
o Non-conformists recruited
Do or die in 90 days● Charged to research private cloud
o Greenfield opportunityo Given unlimited resources (with zero $$$)o Research and report back in 90 days
GO!
Day 1 Begins
Do the impossible...● Build a WORKING demo/POC
o SDN + OpenStack + Ceph
o Oh, and its got to do stuff that works…………...
No Funding!● Diverted gear destined for trash
● NO R&D capital to be foundo Budget = 0$
● Team doing two jobs
AngryStack● Endless possibilities in OpenStack
o If you can make them work
● Feature Greed!o Over-ran the docs that were ‘available’o Current problem are always solved in the next releaseo I always have a current problem
Mad Googling!
Day 30
“Sticky” room (Cloud Cave)● Burn through two
scrummasters● Whiteboards
filled with ideas● Whole team in
one room
Building a cloud…● They said it couldn’t be done
● 500 ways not to build a cloud discovered
● Late nights
Tech debt!● Things breaking!
● Every service is a huge victory!
● Atmos clap is developed
Inception
Day 60
On the heels of dev...● Literally 2 days behind Nicira developers
during our Quantum buildo We were begging for the next code bitso Plugins/integration with Open vSwitcho Scratching of heads
● Amazing support from Nicira
AwesomeStack● We got stuff to work!
o Main feature collection workingo VM’s deployed successfully via Horizono SDN to OpenStack successful!
Deploy networks and routers - Yourself NO MORE VLANS! Self directed FW’s!
Additions Made...● Because Open Source
o Boot from volumeo Instance deploy wizardo Monitoring - Atmos Monkey
1 day left - Do or Die
Day 89
Demo day...● Security group errors (quick refresh)● Ceph stable● Crossing fingers the HW will hold out
Winning!● The Impossible is done!
● Executive mgmt was beyond impressed!
A declaration is made...● This OpenStack thing is our future
o Mgmt said make it so!o The message is sent to the org.
● Wait… There's no moneyo Found a customer that would investo Pitched the dream and they bought in
Schism...● The Cathedral is completely freaked out!!!!!!
o Those OpenStack guys are trying to kill the unicorn factory!
o But.. But.. The customer can do whatever they want in the new thing!
o Why would you build such a thing!?
SolutionStack● Build a world class cloud
o Stableo Sustainableo Not able to hire like a RackSpace o Looked for companies that understand our visiono Long term support o Plan for FedRAMP
I am Zach’s Sleepless Nights
Operationalizing...● Piston
o Provisioningo Impressed by operational philosophy
● VMware NSXo Maturity o Troubleshooting capabilities
● Silicon Mechanicso Amazing fulfillment
Get what we want…
Questions?
AMA