This post was authored by Brent Doncaster, Sr. Strategist, Product Marketing
There are lots of levels in which momentum can affect us – personal, organizational, community, societal…and even galactic!
Momentum effects can flow “down” from the large scale (galactic) to the small scale (personal) relatively easily. If the earth stops rotating around the sun, each individual on earth will be directly affected. The reverse flow “up” from small scale to large scale is not so easy. Landing a man on the moon did not alter the moon’s momentum all that much.
Momentum is very apparent and relatively easy to spot in the middle tiers – the organizational, community and societal spaces. At these levels momentum is often the product of network effects. Network effects are self-reinforcing and build as adopters or subscribers align behind an idea, tool, activity or product to the point where critical mass is achieved. The end effect may be positive or negative depending on the direction of the reinforcement.
The explosion of social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) are recent examples of network effects generating momentum in community spaces. As more and more users joined these virtual communities, they quickly reached critical mass and created a self-propelling momentum. When this occurs, adoption is unstoppable!
What does this have to do with OpenStack? OpenStack clearly has strong positive momentum within the Linux ecosystem with more than 16,000 members and more than 150 companies contributing to the community. Right now, it is on the verge of achieving critical mass for adoption across all types of organizations: public, private, government, commercial, nonprofits, you name it. OpenStack is going mainstream right before our eyes. So, don’t blink or you might wake up one morning and wonder – hey how did I miss that trend?
You can see this momentum live and in person at the 9th OpenStack Summit event next week in Atlanta. Dell will be there in a BIG way, as we have been at every OpenStack Summit event.
If you are attending Summit, please make sure to add these sessions to your schedule:
Dell Keynote: Innovation in the Enterprise, powered by OpenStack, with Sam Greenblatt, VP and CTO
Case Study – University of Alabama – Birmingham
Software Defined storage, Big Data and Ceph. What is all the fuss about?
Open Networking and SDN for OpenStack Cloud
Dell and Red Hat OpenStack Cloud Solutions
Innovation in the Enterprise with OpenStack
It’s going to be cool – See you there! If you have questions or would like additional information please contact us: openstack@dell.com
