Volkswagen Picks Mirantis for OpenStack Private Cloud

OpenStack startup Mirantis announced that Volkswagen Group has selected OpenStack as its platform for its private cloud that will support internal and consumer-facing applications.

Volkswagen selected Mirantis after a “comprehensive and rigorous selection process” that showed Mirantis as the “most stable and fastest to implement among industry OpenStack distributions.”

Volkswagen told Business Insider that it is not planning to rip-and-replace existing infrastructure but rather “surround-and-drown it over time.” The company plans to run all net new applications across its 12 VW brands on the new OpenStack cloud, eventually replacing legacy systems.

As many reports have noted, the win is a blow to OpenStack providers Red Hat and VMware. Mirantis’ revenue saw a surge in late 2015 and early 2016 with enterprise wins, including VW, but also a major US bank with a 1,000-node installation and a financial information firm. The company is now reportedly planning for a transition to a public company.

“As the automotive industry shifts to the service economy, Volkswagen is poised for agile software innovation,” Mario Müller, Volkswagen VP IT Infrastructure said in a statement. “The team at Mirantis gives us a robust, hardened distribution, deep technical expertise, a commitment to the OpenStack community, and the ability to drive cloud transformation at Volkswagen. Mirantis OpenStack is the engine that lets Volkswagen’s developers build and deliver software faster.”

“OpenStack is the open source cloud standard offering companies a fast path to cloud innovation,” Mirantis SVP, Marque Teegardin said. “It is our privilege to partner with Europe’s largest automaker and we are thrilled to support them as they use the software to out-innovate competitors and expand their business on a global scale.”