Just how big is Comcast's OpenStack commitment?

Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video

August 24, 2016

1 Min Read
Comcast & OpenStack by the Numbers

Comcast has been an OpenStack proponent and core user since 2012, and in the four years since, the nation's largest cable company has racked up some impressive stats.

From this week's OpenStack East 2016 conference:

  • 1 -- The amount of memory in petabytes Comcast has deployed across 34 national data centers according to a report from the OpenStack event by PCMag.

  • 400 -- The percentage of growth Comcast says it has experienced year over year in demand and capacity for its OpenStack-based Elastic Cloud service.

  • 73,000 -- The number of lines of code Comcast has contributed to OpenStack.

  • 1 Million -- The number of virtual CPU cores Comcast currently has in production.

The goal of moving to OpenStack for Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is to create a more programmable network, one where resources can be deployed automatically when and where they're needed most. The cable company has worked closely with Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) in its OpenStack development, and today uses an OpenStack environment to deliver multiple applications. Comcast has been running its X1 video service on an OpenStack cloud for more than three years. It's also using OpenStack for its residential email platform and for managing network telemetry data. (See Comcast Opens Up on OpenStack.)

Comcast SVP of platform technologies Mark Muehl said in the spring that the company would consider participating in a large network operator group within the OpenStack community if such a thing develops. Already the cable company has partnered with other service provider members of OpenStack including AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and NTT Group (NYSE: NTT). (See OpenStack Underpins Comcast Elastic Cloud.)

— Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video,

About the Author(s)

Mari Silbey

Senior Editor, Cable/Video

Mari Silbey is a senior editor covering broadband infrastructure, video delivery, smart cities and all things cable. Previously, she worked independently for nearly a decade, contributing to trade publications, authoring custom research reports and consulting for a variety of corporate and association clients. Among her storied (and sometimes dubious) achievements, Mari launched the corporate blog for Motorola's Home division way back in 2007, ran a content development program for Limelight Networks and did her best to entertain the video nerd masses as a long-time columnist for the media blog Zatz Not Funny. She is based in Washington, D.C.

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