Clouds do not threaten opensource
Marten Mikos believes that the clouds do not threaten opensource.
“Even with the code hidden it must remain open,” says the former MySQL CEO.
In the world of opensource, there are now active debates about the fact that cloud computing can destroy the very concept of open source software . Does the provision of services really require cloud providers to hide sources, as Forbes suggests ?
Recently, I went to talk with the best expert on this issue that I could find - to Martin Mikos . Mikos is the CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, a developer of software for “private clouds” (virtualization). He earned himself the status of the Open Source Hall of Fame as the executive director of MySQL. Mikos is sure that open source is not only in no way threatening cloud computing, but on the contrary, it should be used to develop this concept. He is so sure of this that he is even ready to put his career on the line.
“Cloud computing is the largest IT shift we’ve ever seen. They will penetrate everywhere , ”he says. “We are already seeing how they are starting to fuel the mobile Internet. They determine how the development of equipment should go and some players in this market will not be able to adapt. I also wanted to have a hand in this - I like to take part in a big shift. ” Mikos says that he himself went and asked for it at Eucalyptus Systems. His goal was to move into the sphere of cloud computing and at the same time he did not want to lose his roots in the opensource.
Eucalyptus is one of the most mature providers who fluctuate in choice between the worlds of open source and cloud computing. Eucalyptus was originally created as a opensource project as part of the funding of research projects by the US National Science Foundation at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The base of the project is Linux. The company is known for its collaboration with Canonical and involvement in the development of Ubuntu Server Edition (Ubuntu also supports KVM and Libvirt for virtualization).
But let's go back to our topic. After what progress opensource has made to conquer the minds of business users, cloud computing can cause all the merits of open source to go down the drain. Cloud supplies software as a service, with the result that the source code is not so significant for the end user and, possibly, for IT professionals.
For example, Richard Parrish, chief technology officer for Wood County, Texas, is just beginning to engage in open source software. He recently deployed Astaro , a cloud-based Linux application for archiving Exchange email. Astaro is based on open source, namely: Linux. This fact is prominent in Astaro’s marketing strategy, but for Parrish it has no global meaning. He is mainly interested in flexible configuration issues. For example, he wants to add the ability to display personal messages on the screen so that users can see them - he is not very interested in the guts of the service itself.
“I didn’t do anything with the source code - as far as I know, I cannot access it at all. I can't change the source code, ” Parrish explains. “I just go to the interface. It seems to me that when they say that software is open source, it means that it is based on Linux ... For me, it just does not matter. "
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Cloud computing services are different from “private clouds” that Eucalyptus supplies. Private clouds belong to the virtual infrastructure hosted on their organizations. In the case of a private cloud, users have and they are more concerned with access to the source code. But, according to Mikos, even with software supplied as a service, like what Parrish uses, many users are still worried about the openness of the source code, and if not from practical considerations, then at least from ideological ones.
“Users care. There will always be people who do not care about this, but at the moment users are much more informed about open source code than in the 80s and 90s. We have become accustomed to the fact that everything is open, and we demand that this is the case, including in neighboring areas , ”he says.
Marten sees the future in that the clouds will become large and productive enough to support the entire planet. Users around the world will eventually be networked together - billions of Internet devices using cloud-based software. “This system will have to follow international standards and maintain a large number of different equipment. It will have to provide a single interface . ”
Mikos believes that Eucalyptus has software for running such a system. But his main consideration is that as private cloud services grow, private clouds will grow. For businesses, the line between these two concepts will be blurred. Most will use “hybrid” clouds, in which part of the infrastructure for applications will be located on their premises, and the other part will be delivered as a service (from “public clouds”).
Although this is certainly very close to the concept of Microsoft software-plus-services (program-plus-service), Mikos sees the future where all this software is open source. Users will not care, because they will have access to their part of the cloud, for the functioning of which you need to interact with part of the cloud service provider. They may also be concerned that their service provider does not just take the groundwork from the opensource world and create their projects based on them, but also donate (an obvious stone to the Apple garden ).
Naturally, all of the above does not mean that Mikos believes that every piece of code written by the vendor should be open.
In the next article I will talk about how it protects the controversial open core concept.
From the translator:
Yes, the issue of cloud computing is currently one of the most controversial in the world of information technology. On the one hand, we have unprecedented savings of resources and increased productivity of individual applications that go along with savings of financial resources, and on the other hand we have a black box that can be anything and, worst of all, we are offered to keep our personal belongings in it. Personally, I believe that the new mechanisms are not far off, which will allow to solve or at least reduce the severity of these problems. Beyond the clouds, the future is clear today. But as long as the clouds have the shape that they have today, they will not be able to “sail away” far.
“Even with the code hidden it must remain open,” says the former MySQL CEO.
In the world of opensource, there are now active debates about the fact that cloud computing can destroy the very concept of open source software . Does the provision of services really require cloud providers to hide sources, as Forbes suggests ?
Recently, I went to talk with the best expert on this issue that I could find - to Martin Mikos . Mikos is the CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, a developer of software for “private clouds” (virtualization). He earned himself the status of the Open Source Hall of Fame as the executive director of MySQL. Mikos is sure that open source is not only in no way threatening cloud computing, but on the contrary, it should be used to develop this concept. He is so sure of this that he is even ready to put his career on the line.
“Cloud computing is the largest IT shift we’ve ever seen. They will penetrate everywhere , ”he says. “We are already seeing how they are starting to fuel the mobile Internet. They determine how the development of equipment should go and some players in this market will not be able to adapt. I also wanted to have a hand in this - I like to take part in a big shift. ” Mikos says that he himself went and asked for it at Eucalyptus Systems. His goal was to move into the sphere of cloud computing and at the same time he did not want to lose his roots in the opensource.Eucalyptus is one of the most mature providers who fluctuate in choice between the worlds of open source and cloud computing. Eucalyptus was originally created as a opensource project as part of the funding of research projects by the US National Science Foundation at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The base of the project is Linux. The company is known for its collaboration with Canonical and involvement in the development of Ubuntu Server Edition (Ubuntu also supports KVM and Libvirt for virtualization).
But let's go back to our topic. After what progress opensource has made to conquer the minds of business users, cloud computing can cause all the merits of open source to go down the drain. Cloud supplies software as a service, with the result that the source code is not so significant for the end user and, possibly, for IT professionals.
For example, Richard Parrish, chief technology officer for Wood County, Texas, is just beginning to engage in open source software. He recently deployed Astaro , a cloud-based Linux application for archiving Exchange email. Astaro is based on open source, namely: Linux. This fact is prominent in Astaro’s marketing strategy, but for Parrish it has no global meaning. He is mainly interested in flexible configuration issues. For example, he wants to add the ability to display personal messages on the screen so that users can see them - he is not very interested in the guts of the service itself.
“I didn’t do anything with the source code - as far as I know, I cannot access it at all. I can't change the source code, ” Parrish explains. “I just go to the interface. It seems to me that when they say that software is open source, it means that it is based on Linux ... For me, it just does not matter. "
')
Cloud computing services are different from “private clouds” that Eucalyptus supplies. Private clouds belong to the virtual infrastructure hosted on their organizations. In the case of a private cloud, users have and they are more concerned with access to the source code. But, according to Mikos, even with software supplied as a service, like what Parrish uses, many users are still worried about the openness of the source code, and if not from practical considerations, then at least from ideological ones.
“Users care. There will always be people who do not care about this, but at the moment users are much more informed about open source code than in the 80s and 90s. We have become accustomed to the fact that everything is open, and we demand that this is the case, including in neighboring areas , ”he says.
Marten sees the future in that the clouds will become large and productive enough to support the entire planet. Users around the world will eventually be networked together - billions of Internet devices using cloud-based software. “This system will have to follow international standards and maintain a large number of different equipment. It will have to provide a single interface . ”
Mikos believes that Eucalyptus has software for running such a system. But his main consideration is that as private cloud services grow, private clouds will grow. For businesses, the line between these two concepts will be blurred. Most will use “hybrid” clouds, in which part of the infrastructure for applications will be located on their premises, and the other part will be delivered as a service (from “public clouds”).
Although this is certainly very close to the concept of Microsoft software-plus-services (program-plus-service), Mikos sees the future where all this software is open source. Users will not care, because they will have access to their part of the cloud, for the functioning of which you need to interact with part of the cloud service provider. They may also be concerned that their service provider does not just take the groundwork from the opensource world and create their projects based on them, but also donate (an obvious stone to the Apple garden ).
Naturally, all of the above does not mean that Mikos believes that every piece of code written by the vendor should be open.
In the next article I will talk about how it protects the controversial open core concept.
From the translator:
Yes, the issue of cloud computing is currently one of the most controversial in the world of information technology. On the one hand, we have unprecedented savings of resources and increased productivity of individual applications that go along with savings of financial resources, and on the other hand we have a black box that can be anything and, worst of all, we are offered to keep our personal belongings in it. Personally, I believe that the new mechanisms are not far off, which will allow to solve or at least reduce the severity of these problems. Beyond the clouds, the future is clear today. But as long as the clouds have the shape that they have today, they will not be able to “sail away” far.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/96844/
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