Have you ever felt like you’re peeking behind the curtain of cloud computing, only to discover the stage-dressing is changing faster than anyone expected? In early June 2025, what seemed like routine maintenance in the world of open-source cloud platforms and virtual machines rippled into a chain of events few saw coming. By the time the sun set on the first week of June, conversations among system operators and developers hinting at minor tweaks had morphed into debates about the very future of on-premises and cloud-native infrastructure.
From Quiet Foundations to a New Alliance
Just when many of us assumed the OpenInfra community would keep chugging along on its own path, a startling announcement arrived: the OpenInfra Foundation—previously known as the OpenStack Foundation—had quietly merged into the Linux Foundation’s fold. If you’re unfamiliar, OpenInfra (often called “OpenStack” by habit) is the open-source project that helps organizations build private and hybrid clouds by stitching together compute, storage, and networking services. The Linux Foundation, on the other hand, is the umbrella nonprofit that supports Linux itself and dozens of other open-source initiatives. Bringing OpenInfra under Linux Foundation’s wings might sound bureaucratic, but it’s far more significant.
Imagine this: tens of thousands of developers, operators, and vendors who had contributed to OpenInfra’s evolution over more than a decade suddenly find themselves with access to a bigger toolkit—shared back-end infrastructure, joint marketing efforts, and pooled budgets for documentation, events, and security audits. Early whispers suggested member organizations had grown around 14 percent in the months leading up to the merger—a modest uptick, but a sign that enterprises were hungry for alternatives to pricey proprietary stacks. With this new alliance, OpenInfra’s future roadmap would be shaped alongside container projects, edge computing efforts, and other Linux Foundation-hosted initiatives. In plain terms, if you run a data center or build private clouds, expect tighter integration between bare-metal provisioning services, container orchestration, and emerging edge-computing frameworks.
Why Does This Matter?
If you’re new to these names, here’s a quick breakdown:
- OpenInfra/Foundation: An open-source platform originally created to let companies run cloud-style services on their own hardware. It bundles compute (servers), storage (hard drives, SSDs), and networking (virtual routers and switches) into a unified interface.
- Linux Foundation: A nonprofit organization that supports the development of Linux (the operating system that powers most servers) and a constellation of other open-source projects covering everything from automotive software to blockchain.
By bringing OpenInfra into the Linux Foundation, developers get to reuse proven tools for code review, continuous integration, and security scanning. This could reduce redundant effort and accelerate feature rollout—think of it as combining two powerful teams that previously worked in parallel but separately.
An Anniversary That Hinted at Something Bigger
For more than fifteen years, OpenInfra (under its old OpenStack name) has held biannual releases—let’s call them “revolutions and refinements” in cloud-speak. June 2025 was slated for the 2025.1 release, code-named “Epoxy.” On the surface, Epoxy wasn’t just another point release; it revived interest in organizations that had quietly migrated to public clouds but still wanted control over hardware costs.
Epoxy rolled out more robust GPU scheduling (if you need to run graphics cards for machine learning or video encoding, GPUs require special reservations), revamped user interfaces so operators don’t feel like they’re staring at a 1990s terminal, and tightened the workflows for provisioning bare-metal servers. “Bare-metal” simply means dedicating a physical server to a workload instead of sharing resources with other virtual machines. You might ask, “Why would anyone bother?” In industries like telecommunications, high-performance computing, or specialized scientific research, raw hardware access can slash processing latency and boost throughput, critical for real-time applications.
But here’s the twist: Epoxy’s feature list was robust, yet community chatter hinted that enterprises were eyeing a hybrid approach—spinning up a lightweight Kubernetes cluster for containerized microservices while keeping mission-critical legacy workloads on OpenInfra. In other words, organizations weren’t choosing one camp or another; they were blending them. This duality made the Linux Foundation merger feel prescient: by folding in container, edge, and partner projects, the new OpenInfra ecosystem could offer a more seamless path between virtual machines (VMs) and containers.
Peeling Back the Layers of “Epoxy”
If you haven’t heard of terms like “Nova” or “Glance,” don’t worry. They’re just codenames for core components inside the OpenInfra universe:
- Nova: The service that manages compute—i.e., creation, scheduling, and management of virtual machine instances.
- Glance: The image service, responsible for storing and retrieving VM images (templates of preconfigured operating systems and software environments).
In the weeks leading up to the Epoxy launch, developers were scrambling to finalize specs (think of these as feature blueprints) for Nova, while also reviewing bug reports in Glance that ranged from minor UI glitches to memory-leak issues in large-scale deployments.
The Flamingo Cycle: What’s Next on the Horizon?
Just as Epoxy rolled out, conversations turned toward “Flamingo”—the next major release slated for late July 2025. Picture a relay race where Epoxy hands the baton to Flamingo, and so on. In mid-June, Flamingo hit several internal milestones:
- June 3–7: Final code freeze for Epoxy and initial spec reviews for Flamingo.
- June 10–14: Manila (the OpenInfra service for managing shared file systems) hardened its own features, while Nova’s spec review day meant stakeholders gathered to question whether new functionality would scale in real environments.
- June 17–21: Security and performance wizards joined forces to squash bugs, ensuring Flamingo would be stable when it lands.
- June 24–28: Community contributors wrapped up all documentation. “Docs first” might sound boring, but without clear user guides, operators can misconfigure clusters and accidentally expose data.
The important nuance here is that each of these milestones isn’t just about writing code. They’re “gates” where reviewers ask: Will this new feature break existing environments? Is it secure? Is it easy enough to deploy? In practical terms, if you manage a fleet of servers for a mid-size telecom operator, these questions determine whether you can safely push an upgrade or need to wait another quarter.
Why Flamingo Matters
If you’ve ever been tasked with upgrading a production cloud, you know how tense those days can be. A “release cycle” is like planning a citywide fireworks show—get any detail wrong, and you risk a catastrophic failure (or, at the very least, a lot of frustrated customers). Flamingo’s development cadence reflects a growing maturity in the OpenInfra community: they’re not just adding shiny features; they’re focused on stability, backward compatibility, and security hardening. In plain language, it means fewer late-night “oh no” moments for sysadmins.
Whispered Debates in Mailing Lists and Virtual Rooms
Behind every public release announcement, hundreds of quieter discussions bubble beneath the surface. If you’ve never wandered into an OpenInfra mailing list, here’s a quick primer: it’s an asynchronous email forum where developers, operators, and vendors debate everything from naming conventions to encryption standards. In early June, two topics dominated the chatter:
- Error Handling in Glance: Someone discovered that under a specific edge case—uploading a malformed image file—Glance would simply crash instead of producing a user-friendly error message. For non-experts, “malformed” means the file didn’t follow the expected format (like trying to open a Windows executable on a Linux server). The debate wasn’t just academic: if your private cloud hosted 500 images for multiple teams, a silent crash could waste hours of troubleshooting.
- DevStack Versioning Questions: “DevStack” is a reference environment that lets developers spin up a mini-OpenInfra cloud on a single server for testing. Imagine having a sandbox where you can break things without fear—except if your DevStack setup uses mismatched component versions, you end up chasing phantom bugs that vanish in production. The conversation centered on whether DevStack should lock component versions for entire release cycles or allow rolling updates to keep pace with upstream changes.
Meanwhile, the OpenInfra Technical Committee convened on June 4 via video conference. This group, made up of elected contributors, essentially serves as the project’s steering wheel—deciding which features get merged and which pull requests need more scrutiny. They spent hours debating integration strategies with Kubernetes, specifically how to let container workloads live side-by-side with VMs without turning the control plane into a tangled mess. If you’re not a cloud nerd, “control plane” refers to the set of services that manage and orchestrate resources—like a conductor leading an orchestra so that every instrument (compute, storage, network) plays in harmony.
Virtual Machines: More Than Just a Buzzword
While OpenInfra’s saga unfolded, another story was capturing headlines: the global market for virtual machines was on track to hit roughly $7.6 billion by 2032, up from just over $4 billion today. If you’re thinking, “Wait—what exactly is a virtual machine?” here’s the gist: a virtual machine (VM) is a software-defined version of a physical computer. Instead of running an operating system directly on hardware, you install it inside a controlled environment—a VM—that tricks the OS into thinking it has dedicated hardware. This abstraction layer is powered by a hypervisor (imagine X-ray glasses that let multiple people share the same physical frame simultaneously).
According to analysts, this market growth is driven by three key factors:
- Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Adoption: Organizations no longer want to be tethered to a single cloud provider. They run some workloads on their own servers (private cloud), others on public clouds like AWS or Azure, and sometimes even both at once.
- Container-Native Virtualization: Tools like KubeVirt—which let you run VMs inside Kubernetes clusters—blur the lines between containers (lightweight, single-process environments) and VMs (full-blown operating systems). Think of containers as shipping containers for single applications, while VMs are like entire houses—packages within packages.
- Emerging Security and Compliance Needs: As data privacy regulations tighten, many industries insist on running sensitive workloads on dedicated infrastructure. VMs, by isolating resources at the operating-system level, provide better separation than simple containers.
Red Hat’s Bold Move on Azure
In a move that turned heads, Red Hat unveiled a public preview of its flagship OpenShift Virtualization platform running on Microsoft Azure. If you’re not familiar, OpenShift is Red Hat’s enterprise Kubernetes distribution—a packaged, opinionated way to run containers at scale. “OpenShift Virtualization” extends that capability by letting you migrate existing VM workloads into the same Kubernetes environment. Real-world benefit? You might have an old billing application running on a traditional VM that you want to modernize. Instead of rewriting it as a microservice, you package it into a VM image and seamlessly run it alongside your new containerized microservices.
The announcement dropped on June 5, 2025, and featured demos of automatic VM migrations using Red Hat’s Ansible Automation Platform. If you’re scratching your head, Ansible is a tool that lets you describe system-configuration tasks in plain-language playbooks (no scripting required). By combining Ansible with Azure’s APIs, you can automate the tedious steps of shutting down a VM, capturing its disk image, and redeploying it inside an OpenShift cluster. In practice, this cuts migration time from weeks of manual effort down to a few days—if not hours.
The New Kids on the Virtual Block: KubeVirt and Company
Ever heard of KubeVirt? At KubeCon in mid-June, a flurry of announcements spotlighted how container-native virtualization is reshaping infrastructure. Unlike traditional hypervisors (think VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V), KubeVirt runs on Kubernetes itself. In plain terms, it treats VM workloads like any other Kubernetes resource—so instead of learning a separate VM management interface, you use the same kubectl commands you’d use for launching containers.
Portworx, a data-management software vendor, showcased its enterprise data platform for KubeVirt. The selling point? Backup, replication, and disaster-recovery capabilities for VMs are now managed through Kubernetes constructs, removing the need for separate, VM-specific tooling. As one operator put it, “We’ve been running two parallel infrastructures—one for containers, one for VMs. Now, at least for storage, it’s all speaking the same language.”
Why You Should Care
Let’s say you run a fintech startup where regulatory compliance demands certain parts of your stack sit inside hardened VMs, while customer-facing microservices live in containers. With container-native virtualization, you can unify monitoring, logging, and security policies across both VM and container workloads, cutting down operational complexity. No more juggling multiple dashboards; a single Kubernetes control plane paints the full picture.
The IaaS Leaderboard: Who’s Winning in 2025?
In June, an industry report ranked the top Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers, and the usual suspects resurfaced at the top: Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, and Azure Virtual Machines. If you need a quick refresher, “IaaS” refers to cloud providers offering raw computing and storage resources on demand—like renting servers instead of buying them.
- Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): Famously offers dozens of VM instance types, from tiny “t2” burstable VMs to high-performance GPU-backed instances. Its edge lies in the sheer variety and maturity of features.
- Google Compute Engine: Praised for its custom-designed processors optimized for AI and machine-learning tasks. When you spin up a VM on Google’s network, you often get lower latency for AI workloads compared to other clouds.
- Azure Virtual Machines: Known for tight integration with Windows Server environments and on-premises Active Directory setups. If your organization runs on Microsoft products, Azure often simplifies hybrid-cloud connectivity.
This top-three lineup isn’t just a marketing talking point—it influences where enterprises place their mission-critical applications. If you’re deciding between hosting a data-analytics pipeline or an e-commerce storefront, knowing which provider excels at networking, GPU availability, or uptime guarantees can mean the difference between hitting sales targets or missing them.
The Java Virtual Machine Gets a Cloud Makeover
You might think of Java as a relic from the early 2000s, but it still powers a massive chunk of enterprise applications. Recognizing how tricky it can be to tune Java applications for cloud environments, Microsoft quietly rolled out “Jaz”—a new JVM launcher optimized for Azure VMs. If you code in Java, you’ve probably adjusted parameters like heap size (the amount of memory allocated to Java applications) and garbage-collection algorithms (how the JVM frees unused memory). Jazz, as the internal name goes, tries to automate that tuning based on the characteristics of the underlying VM—whether it’s a 2-vCPU burstable instance or a 32-core beefy machine learning server.
By embedding telemetry hooks that measure real-time throughput and latency, Jaz adjusts settings on-the-fly. In simpler terms, imagine your car automatically switching from regular gas to premium mid-drive because it senses you’re hauling a heavy load uphill. That’s what Jaz does for Java apps, aiming to squeeze out peak performance without requiring developers to become tuning experts.
What Lies Ahead?
By the end of June, conversations in boardrooms and server rooms had shifted from “Will OpenInfra remain relevant?” to “How do we operate hybrid fleets of VMs and containers without everything blowing up?” The Linux Foundation merger signaled a new era—one where vertical silos of virtualization and container orchestration begin to converge. Meanwhile, IaaS providers continue battling for features, and tooling like KubeVirt and Jaz hint at a future where the line between physical, virtual, and containerized workloads fades into oblivion.
But here’s the kicker: none of this happens overnight. As operators wrestle with the complexity of integrating old legacy apps into modern platforms, a handful of critical questions linger:
- Will the expanded Linux Foundation membership truly translate into faster security patches, or will bureaucracy slow things down?
- As more organizations adopt container-native virtualization, what happens to specialized VM monitoring tools—will they adapt or become obsolete?
- Can tools like Jaz really simplify JVM tuning for the average developer, or will edge cases still demand manual intervention?
These undercurrents mean that by the time Flamingo arrives in July, only the sharpest and most adaptable teams will be ready. If you’re an IT manager wondering whether it’s safe to schedule that upgrade window in August, the answer might surprise you: some shops will be waiting for mid-September to see how early adopters fare. Others will forge ahead, banking on tighter Linux Foundation cooperation to iron out the wrinkles faster.
Final Thoughts: The Journey Continues
If you’d asked me six months ago where OpenInfra would be by mid-2025, I’d have guessed more incremental feature rollouts and a few enterprise success stories. Instead, we’ve witnessed a foundational shift in governance, a renewed focus on hybrid-cloud orchestration, and a flurry of tooling that could change how we think about running workloads in the cloud—whether through VMs, containers, or a combination of both.
So, what happens next? Keep an eye on early adopters. Watch for case studies from telcos and large-scale enterprises willing to risk running critical workloads on Epoxy-powered clusters. See how easily they fold container-native virtualization into their existing CI/CD pipelines. And if you’re a developer, experiment with Jaz for your Java apps—give it a spin on a test VM and watch how it juggles memory and garbage collection settings.
Because in the end, the real story isn’t just about software releases or market projections. It’s about how teams adapt, innovate, and sometimes struggle to stitch together a future where public clouds, private clouds, and on-premises data centers all play nicely. And let’s be honest—if you’re not a little bit intrigued (or worried) about what that means for your next upgrade cycle, you haven’t been paying attention.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
- OpenInfra merged into the Linux Foundation, hinting at broader collaboration across cloud and container projects.
- The June “Epoxy” release brought GPU scheduling improvements, UI overhauls, and fortified bare-metal workflows.
- Flamingo’s development checkpoints in June focused on stability, security, and backward compatibility.
- Mailing list debates and Technical Committee meetings tackled critical topics like error handling and DevStack versioning.
- VM market set to exceed $7.6 billion by 2032, driven by hybrid-cloud growth and container-native virtualization.
- Red Hat previewed OpenShift Virtualization on Azure, letting operators migrate VMs into Kubernetes clusters.
- New tools like KubeVirt and Microsoft’s “Jaz” JVM launcher blur the line between VMs and containers.
- The next few months will reveal whether these shifts truly simplify operations or introduce fresh complexities.
- If you manage cloud infrastructure, now’s the time to experiment with Epoxy, Flamingo, KubeVirt, and Jaz—and brace for change.”
