Why we need open systems ... and how to creato them in the Era of the Cloud

The promise of open infrastructure and decentralized cloud tools, using Snabb as an example to make some of the ideas more concrete - Katerina Barone Adesi #RoadToOpsCon #OpsConPisa

Transcript

1. | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems … and how to create them in the era of the Cloud
2. 2 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems About Igalia/my team/our use of Snabb • Primarily, for IPv6 transition • No fast open source tools implementing RFC 7596 (lw4o6) lwaftrs • ... so my team built one • Let's talk about why the future should be more like Snabb
3. 3 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Things to think about • What should the next 10 years of cloud computing look like? • What benefits do open systems bring? • An example of an open cloud tool: Snabb
4. 4 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems • "The best way to predict the future is to invent it" • What will help us invent it?
5. 5 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Background: where the cloud is leading us • Centralization: a handful of large providers • This is not inevitable • We can choose to build open infrastructure
6. 6 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Why open infrastructure is crucial • Vendor independence • Freedom to make new things, without having to convince/wait for large providers • Creating infrastructure, not just consuming/building on it • Data protection
7. 7 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Can we have open infrastructure and the cloud? • Yes. • Earlier presentations today: OpenStack, Ansible, … • How can we make the combination even better?
8. 8 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Looking at the open future: Snabb • Let's get more concrete and less philosophical • Snabb: illustrating what I'd like to see more of in cloud computing
9. 9 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems What is Snabb? • A toolkit for writing networking software • … that runs at line speed on 10gb NICs
10. 10 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Why use Snabb? • It's a tool that lets individuals and small teams invent the future • ... not just large hardware or cloud companies • Being able to modify our infrastructure, not just build on it • Sound familiar? :-)
11. 11 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Why Snabb? The usual Open reasons: • Flexibility • Vendor independence • Open source (APL v2) • Those are important, but not what makes it so interesting
12. 12 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Vendor independence • Runs with hardware (NICs) from multiple vendors • No proprietary dependencies • Community of developers/consultants, not just one company • Let's make the cloud look more like this
13. 13 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Empowering tools • Snabb is a small system • Lets individuals (and small teams) do rapid development
14. 14 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Snabb as a small system • Tool: 'code budget' • Keeping systems comprehensible to individuals • Keeping systems cohesive • Keeping systems cleanly extendable
15. 15 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Snabb and rapid development • Comprehensibility + clean concepts = fast dev • Snabb itself is fast and powerful (10gb userspace networking) • Small and production-ready can coexist
16. 16 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Autonomy • Expand what individuals can quickly build • Let individuals build line-speed userspace networking tools • What else would it be useful to build faster?
17. 17 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Using powerful ideas from the history of computing • “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” • Vendor independence, open systems: sounds like Unix • Small, comprehensible systems – long history • These concepts are important for the future of cloud computing
18. 18 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems What does your team wish it had? • Tools like Snabb might help you build it • What small, comprehensible, powerful, fast tools do you wish you had? • Can you build and share them?
19. 19 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems The future of cloud computing is in our hands • Who defines the future of cloud computing? • We can, if we choose to • We can, if we build the tools
20. 20 | kbarone@igalia.com | www.igalia.com Why we need open systems Let's imagine a future where our tooling is like Snabb: comprehensible by individual human beings, rapid to develop with, vendor-independent, and open source. A future where our teams can have the tools they want and need, quickly. • Questions?