Happy birthday, OpenStack!
It’s astonishing how fast time flies – fifteen years already. Yet, here we are: OpenStack cloud still stands as a de facto standard for open source cloud infrastructure implementation. It powers thousands of organisations around the world, across telco, finserv, public sector, IT, research, manufacturing and more.
With more than 45 millions of cores in production, OpenStack is undoubtedly one of the most successful open source projects ever. Thus, let’s take a moment to celebrate its anniversary together, review how we got here, and think about what the next 5 years are going to bring.
When the OpenStack cloud project was launched in 2010, led by NASA and Rackspace, it sought to solve a fundamental set of challenges: how to implement a standard, scalable, and interoperable cloud platform for compute, networking, and storage across modern datacenters. Proprietary stacks and vendor lock-in limited innovation; OpenStack’s goal was to deliver an open source, community-driven, and modular foundation for cloud computing at scale.
Canonical recognized the promise of that vision early on. We committed to packaging OpenStack for Ubuntu, ensuring that operators could use the power of OpenStack cloud on top of the world’s leading Linux distro. Over time, we extended support for OpenStack under Ubuntu’s long-term support (LTS) releases, offering users the desired level of stability, and security updates, now available for up to 12 years under Legacy Support. We also built an automation framework to simplify OpenStack’s deployment and operations, all while actively steering upstream development towards emerging use cases and market needs.
In 2014, Canonical formally launched its OpenStack cloud distribution – Canonical OpenStack. That timing coincided with the early “technology trigger” phase of the hype cycle. Many were testing private cloud ideas, and Canonical OpenStack gained traction precisely because it lowered the operational barrier.
Over the last decade and a half, OpenStack has evolved from a “cloud experiment” into a rock-solid, production-proven platform. It has been pushed to its limits in high-stakes sectors: from telco NFV deployments to sophisticated AI/ML workloads and mission-critical enterprise cloud environments. What was once a cutting edge technology is now mature, stable, and trusted by CEOs worldwide.
In parallel, Canonical has maintained its commitments: over 5 million lines of code (and many thousands of commits, and code reviews) have flowed into the OpenStack project from Canonical since its initial release. Over the years, we became the second biggest contributor – and we’re still going strong.
On the distribution front, Canonical OpenStack has become a leading choice: more than 500 clouds run our distribution in production globally under Ubuntu Pro. Meanwhile, Ubuntu Server has emerged as the preferred OS for OpenStack cloud deployments. In the 2024 edition of the OpenStack User Survey, 54% of respondents reported they run their OpenStack cloud on top of Ubuntu Server.
The story of OpenStack is far from being over. With the project now under the governance of the Linux Foundation, OpenStack is set to play an even greater role in shaping the future of cloud-native infrastructure. Moreover, emerging use cases such as digital sovereignty, AI, and confidential computing will be central to its next phase, and will steer directions for future development for sure.
And Canonical remains committed to driving this story, and to the overall OpenStack’s success. Our primary focus remains on modernising its operational experience with cloud-native principles, simplifying its adoption, refining the code base, and ensuring that OpenStack remains accessible to all.
These efforts converge in project Sunbeam – a reimagined OpenStack cloud that is composable yet opinionated by default, enterprise-grade yet simple to deploy, and capable of running anywhere, at any scale.
Canonical is honoured to mark OpenStack’s 15th anniversary. We have been there from early days, through every architectural shift, every release, every challenge, and we are more optimistic now about its future than we have ever been before.
To OpenStack – happy birthday! We hope that when you turn 18, we’ll be raising glasses of champagne together.
To learn more about Canonical OpenStack and Sunbeam, visit the following resources:
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