Ctrip Cloud Platform Director Wu Yiting Discusses OpenStack Adoption, Private Cloud Development, and VDI Solutions

Ctrip Technology Center participated as an invited representative of the OpenStack open‑source cloud platform at the 2013 Hong Kong OpenStack Summit, and later Wu Yiting, the director of Ctrip Cloud Platform, was a key speaker at the 6th China Cloud Computing Conference – OpenStack Enterprise Application Technical Training, followed by a CSDN interview.

Wu Yiting, Director of Ctrip Cloud Platform

He built the team from scratch and, based on OpenStack, developed Ctrip's private cloud to manage all development, testing, production environments and the call‑center infrastructure, including VMware/KVM virtualization, automated physical server deployment, and a virtual desktop solution serving over ten thousand call‑center staff; he graduated from Zhejiang University and previously worked at eBay and Baidu.

CSDN: How did you start researching and promoting OpenStack?

Wu Yiting joined Ctrip in July 2012, began constructing the private cloud platform and team, compared OpenStack, CloudStack, and OpenNebula, and after deployment tests, source‑code reading, and architectural research chose OpenStack as the most promising open‑source IaaS solution.

Based on the G release, his team performed secondary development, adding a Razor‑based Bare Metal driver now used in multiple data centers, extending the VMware driver, introducing Quantum, integrating with Active Directory, improving Horizon, and more; today all Ctrip development and testing environments and part of production run on OpenStack, with an ongoing migration from VMware to KVM.

As Ctrip's business grew, the call‑center expanded, prompting the launch of a virtual desktop project that leverages OpenStack to support a multi‑call‑center virtual desktop platform for over ten thousand users.

CSDN: What are the main enterprise applications of OpenStack?

OpenStack is widely deployed in Chinese internet companies such as Ctrip, Vipshop, 360, iQiyi, etc.; for traditional enterprises, the primary needs are OpenStack's support for VMware and migration from VMware to KVM managed by OpenStack.

CSDN: What are the biggest challenges for enterprises using OpenStack?

1. OpenStack's product and commercial maturity still lag behind direct enterprise use, presenting opportunities for startups. 2. Custom development requires a strong R&D and testing team to meet internal needs, contribute back to the community, and eventually become a community contributor. 3. OpenStack challenges traditional IT/Operations by breaking down siloed server, network, and storage teams, making deployment complex (e.g., multi‑node Neutron, RabbitMQ HA) and sometimes causing performance bottlenecks; migration of existing environments to OpenStack is also difficult.

CSDN: How do you see the current development of OpenStack?

Overall, OpenStack shows vibrant growth and many opportunities; it has moved from early adoption by a few cloud companies to widespread deployment in internet enterprises, spawning startups, and now penetrating traditional enterprises and education; the community effectively integrates hardware vendors, cloud providers, startups, and enterprise users, achieving a strong open‑source and commercial blend.

CSDN: What improvements does the newly released IceHouse version bring compared to the previous release?

The new release adds numerous features: a significantly improved Horizon user experience, strong OpenDaylight support in networking, LBaaS support for NetScaler (highly requested by NetScaler users), and Heat now supports the new HOT template format.

CSDN: What can we expect from the upcoming OpenStack Summit in the United States?

The Summit will feature rich Summit talks offering insights into various companies' views on OpenStack development and the J‑release roadmap, as well as vibrant exhibition booths; topics on large‑scale OpenStack deployments and continuous integration are especially worth following.

CSDN: What topics will you share at the upcoming training?

Wu Yiting will share two topics based on his practical experience at Ctrip: a VDI solution with case analysis, and best practices for cross‑Hypervisor management.

CSDN: Who should attend this training and how will it help them?

The training is aimed at operations and development engineers, architects, and technical managers who have some OpenStack operational or development experience and wish to deepen their skills, as well as those planning to introduce private or desktop clouds based on OpenStack.

Click “Read the original article” to learn more about Ctrip’s OpenStack initiatives.