451 CAOS Theory 
A blog for the enterprise open source community
Linux and open source no puff in the clouds
Jay Lyman, March 18, 2009 @ 11:40 am ETUPDATED – I had to update this post after a conversation with RightScale founder and CTO Thorsten von Eicken and for Sun’s Open Cloud announcement, which are both now included below.
There has been some substantial technology and news regarding open source software in cloud computing lately. More proof that open source is reaching into nearly all aspects of enterprise and broader IT, and also reinforcement of the idea that open source software will continue to have a pervasive and disruptive impact on the way organizations of all shapes and sizes do their computing and deal with their data.
First up is RightScale, which as detailed by 451 colleague and Principal Analyst William Fellows, is up and running across the pond on Amazon’s EU EC2. As WiF reports, RightScale started with Red Hat Linux clone CentOS, but is seeing demand and traction among its users with Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux, which it recently began supporting in full. Our report also highlights Ubuntu packaging and integrated AWS-compatible Eucalyptus APIs. For its part, RightScale says its cloud infrastructure now includes cloud-ready ServerTemplates for Ubuntu — pre-built templates for common cloud configurations.
In my recent conversation with RightScale founder and CTO Thorsten von Eicken, he indicated as ISVs and others contemplate how to publish, sell, support and monetize applications in the cloud, they can benefit from the lessons and advantages of open source software. von Eicken and I agree that open source represents a different usage and payment model that is more conducive to cloud computing than traditional software licensing and payment models.
Next up is my own coverage of Cittio and its initiation of Project Zeppelin to create a standard, open agent and open source instrumentation for cloud monitoring. One of the most interesting aspects of Zeppelin is its intent to provide a standard way to compare clouds — both public ones from Amazon and others and internal deployments — and match applications to infrastructure by looking at discovery, monitoring, evaluation and auditing data. Monitoring of the clouds is also a place we see Hyperic, the most cloud-centric of the systems management and monitoring vendors centered on open source.
We’re also hearing a lot about the Apache Hadoop Project, most notably the new commercial play around it – Cloudera (covered recently in Matt’s latest CAOS Links and late last year in a blog). With Hadoop in use at places such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo! and recent $5m in funding from Accel Partners and others, the company certainly has some opportunity that is not pie in the sky. Indeed, Hadoop, which is also a focus for Cittio, and Cloudera are all further evidence of how real open source software is for cloud computing.
Although it may be getting lost in the noise around the potential IBM-Sun acquisition rumors, Sun Microsystems made a significant cloud announcement involving open source, as well. With its release of the Sun Cloud aimed at ‘developers, students and startups,’ Sun is relying on several open source components such as Java, MySQL, OpenSolaris and Open Storage.
So while many Linux and open source fans and followers have, unfortunately, grown used to hearing about Linux in this or open source in that when it turns out to be just for the buzz and attention created by those key words, Linux and open source in the clouds is more than mere mist.
Comments (11) Categories: Software
Jay, I would fully concur with you that open source is not just “more than mere mist” in the cloud, it is *powering the cloud*! A large part of the attraction of the cloud is the low barrier to entry and that goes hand-in-hand with open source. You can test something out real quick and cheap using open source and the cloud. The traditional per-cpu and/or per-year licensing models make it much more difficult. Also, it’s looking much easier for companies that provide services or upgrades around open source software to figure out how to craft cloud offering. If you have a per-server annual license model it’s much harder to experiment with on-demand pricing in the cloud.
Thanks for adding some additional thoughts Thorsten. I updated the post after our talk, but am glad to see you reinforcing it.Good point about the ability to experiment with different models and offerings — this is key to building successful revenue streams based on open source software and based on cloud computing. Thanks again.
JL
[...] more from the original source: 451 CAOS Theory » Linux and open source no puff in the clouds This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am and is filed under Linux, News, [...]
[...] An open source blog by The 451 Group. … With its release of the Sun Cloud aimed at ‘developers, students and startups,’ Sun is relying on several open source components such as Java, MySQL, OpenSolaris and Open Storage. … Read More [...]
IMHO, any reference to Cittio should have an asterisk beside it when it comes to “Open Source”. You guys, above all, should know this already…
Play Fair or go Home
Fair point, botchagalupe,
We do note in our report, Cittio has had its difficulties dealing with open source, the OpenNMS project in particular. However, the company seems to have the right expectations in its Project Zeppelin, which is licensed under the LGPL. Thanks,
JL
[...] parts and so on. We’re now seeing a similar battle in cloud computing, where open source looms large, as other vendors step up to the opportunities. VMware’s announcement of vSphere, billed as [...]
[...] parts and so on. We’re now seeing a similar battle in cloud computing, where open source looms large, as other vendors step up to the [...]
[...] management of enterprise clouds, particularly internal clouds. RightScale, for example, recently switched from using, for its cloud management software, Red Hat clone CentOS to Ubuntu based on customer [...]
[...] Linux distributions. Part of the trend of community Linux in the cloud, vendors such as rPath, RightScale and Convirture have incorporated CentOS and Ubuntu into their software and support, for [...]
[...] source evolving with the cloud Jay Lyman, February 11, 2010 @ 2:43 am ET We’ve covered the significance of open source software in cloud computing, both with the emergence of cloud models and more [...]