Mohammed NaserOpen Infrastructure Foundation supports open source development in IT infrastructure globally. Here's a look at the history of the foundation.
Open Infrastructure Foundation is an entity supporting open source development in IT infrastructure globally.
For almost a decade, the governing body of OpenStack and related projects was the OpenStack Foundation. Recently, at the Open Infrastructure Summit 2020, the foundation announced that it has evolved into the Open Infrastructure Foundation.
This move is part of the multi-year drive of community evolution and expansion into including newer projects under the foundation's wing. In this context, let's take a look at the timeline that led to this evolution.
The Beginning
The origin of OpenStack, and later the foundation, can be traced back to something that happened in a true open source fashion - a collaboration.
Rackspace was rewriting the infrastructure code (what was later known as Swift) to its cloud offerings. They decided to make the existing code open source. Simultaneously, through its contractor Anso Labs, NASA did the same with the Python-based cloud fabric controller Nova. The teams realized that both the projects are complementary and decided to collaborate. This shared program marked the beginning of OpenStack.
Tech professionals from 25+ companies attended the first OpenStack Design Summit, held in July 2010 in Austin, Texas. Team VEXXHOST joined the OpenStack community by the time the second OpenStack project, Bexar, was released.
OpenStack and the community were growing, and there was a need to promote and develop projects in a more sustainable and organized manner. This thought resulted in the creation of the OpenStack Foundation in September 2012.
The Foundation
The creation of the OpenStack Foundation was a defining moment for cloud computing users across the globe. The foundation launched with over 5,600 members representing numerous companies. We are proud to say that VEXXHOST was also part of it all from the very beginning.
To govern OpenStack and other open source projects better, the foundation set up three bodies under its wing - the Board of Directors, the Technical Committee, and the User Committee. Over the years, the foundation grew with the growth of the projects. Recently there arose a need to build a larger umbrella to adopt and develop more open source projects. Hence, the OpenStack Foundation evolved into the Open Infrastructure Foundation, with OpenStack still being in the heart of it all.
The Summits
The first OpenStack Summit was held in Paris in 2014. The event changed its name to the Open Infrastructure Summit with its Denver edition in 2019. Held almost bi-annually, the summits have always given timely boosts to the development of open sources. The global community of OpenStack developers, contributors, and users come together during the summits and share their ideas collectively. VEXXHOST is a regular presence at the summits and won the SuperUser Award at the Denver Summit, 2019.
The Open Infrastructure Summit was held virtually from 19th to 23rd October 2020, owing to the pandemic. The foundation announced its evolution and name change at the Summit and was greeted with much fanfare.
VEXXHOST and Open Infrastructure Foundation
VEXXHOST was a Corporate Member of the OpenStack Foundation for many years. Our association with the OpenStack community began in 2011, and we've been a part of the journey so far as an avid contributor and user. With the latest evolution, we are proud to be a Founding Silver Member of the Open Infrastructure Foundation and accompany it to new heights of open source development.
VEXXHOST has a wide range of cloud solutions powered by OpenStack and other open source projects, including a fully customizable private cloud. If you have further queries on our services, contact us, and we'll get back to you.