OpenStack has seen success with deployments, products, and services. To ensure long term health and success, Red Hat promotes an "upstream first" mindset where investments are prioritized in the OpenStack community. This includes designing, developing, testing, and contributing all code upstream. It brings benefits like influence, quality, security, and interoperability. Horizontal teams work across projects in areas like release management, infrastructure, documentation, and more. Individuals can help by becoming active contributors and serving as liaisons between teams.