OpenStack announces its latest release, Epoxy. The focus is on expanded hardware support, security, and rapid migration from VMware.
OpenStack launches version 2025.1 Epoxy, the 31st release of the open-source infrastructure platform, with a blog. It’s the first of two major releases OpenStack will release this year. OpenStack is sometimes called ‘the Linux of the cloud,’ and that’s no coincidence: the Epoxy release bundles more than 7,600 contributions from about 450 developers.
Three aspects are central to OpenStack Epoxy: support for storage and hardware, security, and migration from VMware. OpenStack aims to respond to growing dissatisfaction among VMware customers and offer them an escape route. More and more companies are looking for open-source alternatives to commercial platforms, OpenStack writes in the announcement blog.
Escaping from VMware
The software integrates Prometheus into the Watcher project, allowing organizations to better monitor the performance of existing VMware infrastructures during migration. This should facilitate the transition from VMware to OpenStack without performance degradation. With this release, OpenStack responds to changing market conditions. Organizations reviewing their virtualization strategy are given more tools with Epoxy to technically support that transition.
Broadcom has been kicking against many shins since it acquired VMware two years ago. The restructured VMware portfolio is tailored to the largest, most lucrative customers. With price increases and penalties for late renewals, parent company Broadcom continues the vendetta against smaller companies relentlessly. It gladly takes the discontent with it.
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OpenStack Aims to Liberate VMware Customers with Epoxy
However, migrating from VMware is a long, expensive, and painful process. Several providers see an opportunity by offering disgruntled VMware customers a less painful exit. HPE launched VM Essentials earlier this year, and Nutanix is also ready to accommodate an influx from VMware. OpenStack wants to be the open-source alternative to VMware.
Support and Security
That’s not all for the Epoxy release. OpenStack focuses on improving support for storage hardware for NetApp, Pure Storage, and Hitachi with driver updates. This is not unrelated to the migration story. This allows companies to retain their existing storage infrastructure when switching to OpenStack.
In terms of security, Epoxy contains several innovations. In the Manila component, administrators can now change access rights on shared files from ‘read-only’ to ‘read-write’ or vice versa. This allows them to more precisely determine who gets access to which data. Furthermore, Octavia, OpenStack’s load balancing service, supports custom Neutron security groups for VIP ports. This ensures that only pre-approved network traffic can reach the load balancing point.
OpenStack sticks to a simple update cycle. It releases two versions per year, but customers don’t necessarily have to install both. Those who skipped the Dalmatian release of October 2024 can switch directly from Caracal (April 2024) to Epoxy without an intermediate update. The next version, Flamingo, is expected in October.