Cloud and open source have been inextricably tied since the beginning of clouds and it’s safe to say that much of the development toward the cloud paradigm shift is, at least in part, due to the economics and open nature of open-source software. Even still, open source software occupies a strange position as more companies deliver cloud-based offerings–and more customers use their software. As James Urquhart notes, “The ways open source is most affected by cloud computing mostly revolve around the changing roles in the IT operations sphere…cloud drives operations teams from a server focus to an application focus, which means different teams now operate the infrastructure components that an application depends on versus the application itself.” On the whole this means as traditional IT structures shift and PaaS offerings become more widely used, it will only be a matter of time until most clouds are supported by the company providing the cloud service rather than direct IT.
The Intersection of Open Source and Clouds
June 30, 2010