The new open source cloud orchestration platform called OpenStack is the promise of flexible network virtualization, and network overlays are looking closer than ever. The vision of this platform is to enable the on-demand creation of many distinct networks on top of one underlying physical infrastructure in the cloud environment. The platform will support automated provisioning and management of large groups of virtual machines or compute resources, including extensive monitoring in the cloud.
There is still a lot of work to be done, as there are many concerns around the efficiency and simplicity of the management solution for the compute and storage resources. A mature solution will need to incorporate different approaches to interact within the intra-server provisioning, QoS and vNIC management. For example, by leaning on local network adapters that are capable of managing the requests by utilizing OpenFlow protocol, or by using a more standard approach which is managed by the switch. Using only one method might create performance and efficiency penalties.