Introducing OpenStack and the Certified OpenStack Administrator Exam

The snippet above is from a web page. It appears unremarkable upon first glance. It contains no graphics, sound, JavaScript, or CSS. A plain, stark white background, some simple text, and a few hyperlinks.

The page existed as a single HTML file, hosted on a 25 MHz NeXTcube workstation. The machine boasted 8 MB of memory and a 17-inch monochrome monitor. The 1-foot-on-all-sides metal cube-shaped system sat on the floor of a small office, the colorful NeXT logo affixed near its metal power button.

This computer was not hosted in a data center, but in a small office at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a.k.a. CERN. Straddling the French-Swiss border. CERN's expansive campus is currently home to the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator. But in 1991, something much larger than the collider lurked in Tim Berners-Lee's Building 31 office.

This web page was the first Hello World of the internet. The birthplace of modern communication. And although in 1991 it would have been unlikely to find anyone with internet access (let alone a computer that could support it), it's difficult to believe how far we've come. Little did Berners-Lee know that a fundamental shift in human communication would rapidly evolve over the next 25 years.

Today's business environment moves faster than ever. Online companies such as Amazon, Netflix, and Uber have completely changed the way the world does business. To stay competitive, enterprises must be able to provide desktop and mobile applications that deliver cutting-edge, secure, and self-service capabilities directly to the customer. Although we need skillful software developers to provide these applications, it's extremely difficult to be agile in corporate environments with overly bureaucratic IT policies and outdated software.

OpenStack is the answer to this lack of agility. It is an open source cloud operating system that has revolutionized computing and provides true power to developers. The Certified OpenStack Administrator Exam is your opportunity to learn the skills required to operate OpenStack clouds, and like Berner-Lee's first website, spark a transformation—one that will facilitate the development, deployment, and management of today's most critical applications.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• A brief history of the cloud
• An overview of OpenStack
• The Certified OpenStack Administrator exam
• Seven steps to becoming a Certified OpenStack Administrator

After this chapter, you will be ready to set up your very own OpenStack testing environment and begin working through the objectives covered in the following chapters.