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Chuck Davis, Cloud Administrator & IT Architect, CNBB Securities

  • Company Info
  • Carmen (IT Director)
  • Chuck (IT Architect Architect/Cloud admin)
  • Calvin (Lead Developer/Cloud user)

"OpenStack is free, but we pay for it in sweat"

Daily Horizon Usage

2 hours

Location

New York City

CNBB Securities

CNBB Securities is a large financial services company. They have a large IT infrastructure that runs many mission-critical applications. They are rarely on the cutting edge of new technologies but they are aware of them. They value solid, industry standard technology backed up by vendor support.

How do you use Horizon Today?

We don't really use it other than to just play with it. From what I’ve seen, I’m not sure Horizon’s something I’m going to use a lot, even once we get more vested in OpenStack. Our developers have a small test and development cloud that they use for development projects, and I think some of the more casual users tend to use Horizon.

What are your main responsibilities?

Blah, blah, blah

What do you think about working with the OpenStack Community?

Frankly, I sort of understand how some people may find the whole “community” thing appealing, but it’s not a big draw for me, at least in terms of participating myself. I just don’t have the time at work, and I’d rather spend my free time with my family. I’m not some kid that spends his or her evenings coding.

What are the key obstacles that you see with OpenStack Today?

The general consensus in my team is that OpenStack isn’t a mature technology. We’re interested in tracking its progress, but using it within our own IT infrastructure, at least right now, in my mind exposes us to too much risk. This is a conservative industry that’s traditionally slow to change, especially when there is any chance of a negative impact on security or disaster recovery. That’s just not something we can afford. And open source is a different ball game for us. We have a lot of clout with our vendors given our size, but when you get to something like OpenStack, the only way to influence direction is through contributing code, and that’s certainly not how I want to spend my days.