I recently attended Open Source World, concurrent with Cloud World in San Francisco and naturally, a good place to converse on and consider the intersection of open source and cloud computing and what it means for vendors, customers and the software. I found a general consistency among views on this, but did hear some surprising input as well. Below are some points and perspectives I heard while attending the conference, with some of our thoughts on those views included.

*While IT staff may be reluctant to let go of control (and embrace cloud computing), the fact of the matter is they can’t keep up with the business side of enterprise organizations and strategies. This continues to the case for many organizations that turn to both open source software and cloud computing as tools to allow them to keep pace. Interestingly, it seems open source software is more of an established pillar, with some trepidation around cloud computing, but familiarity and generally fondness for open source software. Open source does represent cost savings and flexibility, and when it intersects with cloud computing, this includes avoiding vendor lock-in.

*Since we’re always asking about how vendors and customers typically roll out cloud computing initiatives and infrastructures, I heard a lot of talk about the cloud computing customer process. Many vendors reinforced the idea that open source has paved the way to the cloud, a topic coverd here on the CAOS Theory blog by Matt. Consider Amazon’s use of the Xen open source hypervisor at the core of its EC2 cloud offerings as a prime example. We’re also hearing more and more about internal cloud use, public cloud use and hybrid scenarios where organizations look to their own, private resources first, then use Amazon, Google or other cloud options for higher scale and heavy lifting. Many organizations don’t want to compete with the initial, large cloud players as much as they want to emulate and leverage them. A lot of folks also referred to cloud computing and its potential to take virtualization beyond the hypervisor and beyond the server so that applications, databases and data are all abstract.

*I came to the conference thinking we’re not yet seeing much in the way of actual deployment of internal cloud infrastructures, based on previous vendor and customer conversations, but heard indications it may be more of a case of early adopters not wanting to disclose their cloud plans and architectures. This is a familiar theme in open source software, where early adopters and major users can often be shy about their use of open source software for competitive or other reasons. One vendor reported that 9 out of 10 customers are going ahead with some sort of internal cloud plans. We also heard about new cloud computing providers who are picking their customers, rather than pitching to whole swaths of customers.

*Cloud computing, similar to Linux and other open source software, is also clearly emerging as a major opportunity for hosters and service providers, as well as vendors that cater to them.

*We also heard that some large IT users, such as those in academia, are accustomed to using large cluster and high-performance IT infrastructures, so they are likely to be among the early customers and users. also experience in doing this among academia and newer, emerging companies (Canonical)

*It was not all cloud computing cheerleading at the conference, as one meeting revealed some concerns that cloud computing will not sufficiently meet the needs of high-performance computing (HPC) needs. However, there was quickly a response that HPC can fit with cloud computing as it does with grid computing, where a grid infrastructure can still use reinforcement from the cloud during spikes, for example.

*There was also an ongoing theme of mixed environments, and it seems the trend will continue in the clouds, where we expect to see proprietary and open source pieces used together frequently. Open source and proprietary software used to often be a choice of either/or, but with both increasingly deployed and supported together, the choices grow and the customer gains more control. We see advantages, such as licensing costs and flexibility, in open source software and truly open standards, but we also realize there are preferences and legacy ties for proprietary software as well.