Why cloud computing should switch to open source
In this article, we will present you the open source arguments for open source cloud technologies from Pete Chadwick , senior cloud solutions manager at SUSE , Attachmate Group .
Speed, flexibility and customization. Here are the “big three” of magic words, brought by companies to justify their investments in cloud technologies. But while the current largest cloud players are guided by technological interests, financial interests do not allow them to make an open development environment for cloud computing.
Open source, especially Linux, includes all three of the above principles. And after 20 years of successful existence of Linux, we are on the threshold of a turning point, when openness is not only universally accepted, but also in demand. In the case of the operating system, and later with the virtual development environment, the initial wave of proprietary options was followed by the emergence and then adoption of open source code. Now the story is repeated with cloud technologies: projects like OpenStack (open source software for creating private and public clouds) are going off with a bang. To date, OpenStack has enlisted the support of more than 180 public and private organizations around the world.
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Open Source was born in order to make technology more accessible and facilitate collaboration, and goes beyond patent law. These advantages of Open Source are, in fact, indisputable.
Again, the most important characteristics of the cloud are its scalability depending on its needs, as well as the speed and ease of connection. But you will never get real flexibility while using any one specific solution. In fact, now there is just a war between major cloud providers.
If you use several different technologies in your IT infrastructure, then you need several different cloud solutions that need to work together somehow. This is not flexibility. But the movement to the "open clouds" implies the full mutual compatibility of all platforms.
The company invests huge resources in achieving integration and compatibility so that all parts of the IT infrastructure work harmoniously in the cloud. This allows organizations to maximize their investment.
In the IT world, it has always been thought that investing in open source is more risky than in a large, proprietary project. Combine these historical issues with the cloud security issue, and you will get a real cloud security crisis.
But try to think about it in this way: if you run your own platform, you are driven into the framework of the infrastructure brand. If you need to mix and combine different technologies, will each supplier be ready for integration with the rest? And the absence of this compatibility is not an additional risk?
In open systems, security holes are very quickly and easily found, which is not the case with our own systems. Since professional programmers and security professionals interested in developing on the basis of open source code will have access to your platform, they will undoubtedly help to solve the problem with holes. No company will provide such support as Open Source.
The story brought us another lesson related to open source providers: they are very difficult to overtake in innovations, especially when interested parties put them on them. Linux managed to outperform UNIX in server space, and now it collects 18% of all revenue from servers, according to IDC . Android’s mobile space enjoys 50.9% of the market share, up from 30% in 2010. More than 450 developers, who are only part of the international community, participated in the OpenStack design summit and invested their code in the latest release. This community is much larger than the development team of any company.
Linux, used by thousands of businesses and millions of users worldwide, last year celebrated its twentieth anniversary. He overcame this milestone with the imprint of enterprises and mobile technologies that hardly anyone could have predicted. The next battlefield for Open Source is clouds. Guided by the principles of open source, clouds can make significant progress in innovation and reach a fundamentally new technological level.
This position is the author of the article. Do you think the clouds should go the way of Open Source or continue to develop separately, within individual companies?
Speed, flexibility and customization. Here are the “big three” of magic words, brought by companies to justify their investments in cloud technologies. But while the current largest cloud players are guided by technological interests, financial interests do not allow them to make an open development environment for cloud computing.Open source, especially Linux, includes all three of the above principles. And after 20 years of successful existence of Linux, we are on the threshold of a turning point, when openness is not only universally accepted, but also in demand. In the case of the operating system, and later with the virtual development environment, the initial wave of proprietary options was followed by the emergence and then adoption of open source code. Now the story is repeated with cloud technologies: projects like OpenStack (open source software for creating private and public clouds) are going off with a bang. To date, OpenStack has enlisted the support of more than 180 public and private organizations around the world.
')
Open Source was born in order to make technology more accessible and facilitate collaboration, and goes beyond patent law. These advantages of Open Source are, in fact, indisputable.
Selection
Again, the most important characteristics of the cloud are its scalability depending on its needs, as well as the speed and ease of connection. But you will never get real flexibility while using any one specific solution. In fact, now there is just a war between major cloud providers.
If you use several different technologies in your IT infrastructure, then you need several different cloud solutions that need to work together somehow. This is not flexibility. But the movement to the "open clouds" implies the full mutual compatibility of all platforms.
The company invests huge resources in achieving integration and compatibility so that all parts of the IT infrastructure work harmoniously in the cloud. This allows organizations to maximize their investment.
Reporting
In the IT world, it has always been thought that investing in open source is more risky than in a large, proprietary project. Combine these historical issues with the cloud security issue, and you will get a real cloud security crisis.
But try to think about it in this way: if you run your own platform, you are driven into the framework of the infrastructure brand. If you need to mix and combine different technologies, will each supplier be ready for integration with the rest? And the absence of this compatibility is not an additional risk?
In open systems, security holes are very quickly and easily found, which is not the case with our own systems. Since professional programmers and security professionals interested in developing on the basis of open source code will have access to your platform, they will undoubtedly help to solve the problem with holes. No company will provide such support as Open Source.
Unity
The story brought us another lesson related to open source providers: they are very difficult to overtake in innovations, especially when interested parties put them on them. Linux managed to outperform UNIX in server space, and now it collects 18% of all revenue from servers, according to IDC . Android’s mobile space enjoys 50.9% of the market share, up from 30% in 2010. More than 450 developers, who are only part of the international community, participated in the OpenStack design summit and invested their code in the latest release. This community is much larger than the development team of any company.
Linux, used by thousands of businesses and millions of users worldwide, last year celebrated its twentieth anniversary. He overcame this milestone with the imprint of enterprises and mobile technologies that hardly anyone could have predicted. The next battlefield for Open Source is clouds. Guided by the principles of open source, clouds can make significant progress in innovation and reach a fundamentally new technological level.
This position is the author of the article. Do you think the clouds should go the way of Open Source or continue to develop separately, within individual companies?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/149583/
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