Where do cloud computing and open source intersect? What impact do they have on each other? Find out in this fascinating presentation!

1. Open Source and Cloud
The Two Great Tastes...
John Mark Walker
Gluster.org Community Guy
Open Cloud Initiative Vice-president
April 4, 2012

2. WTF is Cloud
● Cloud is a distributed and automated service delivery
system
● Origins:
Increasing emphasis on automation
–
– Increasing reliance on network services
– Increasing commoditization of hardware and
software components
– Increasing scale-out of operations
● Goals: flexibility, agility, automation and economies
of scale
April 6, 2012 The Future of Gluster.org - John Mark Walker

3. WTF is Open Source
● Open source: distributed software development
system
● Origins:
– Increasing commoditization of software +
downward price pressure
– Increasing connectivity and knowledge sharing
between interested parties
– Increasing demands for easy adoption
● Deploy first, ask questions later
– A sprinkling of advocacy
● Goals: quicker development, economies of brain
scale, defining (and defending) fair marketplace

4. What They are not
● Open source != distribution system
● Freely available != open source
– See, eg. Splunk
● Cloud != virtualization or any specific type of software
● Automated, scalable service delivery over a
network

5. Similarities of OSS and Cloud
● Both reflect a changing landscape in the data
center towards automation and agility
● Both reflect increasing independence on the
part of developers and operations
● Both also drive more of the above
– Positive feedback loop for more data
center automation

6. Similarities of OSS and Cloud
● Open source facilitates adoption-led model
● Cloud computing thrives on an adoption-led
model
● Open source facilitates faster development
● Cloud computing thrives on faster
development

7. Theories, Hypotheses and other
Heretical Things
● Hypothesis #1:
● Cloud computing is not possible without open
source
● How do we test?

8. Party Like It's 1998
● You have a really cool research project at
Stanford, do you...
● A.) buy lots of expensive proprietary software,
hardware and hope the investors don't mind
● B.) DIY with lots of custom glue around freely
available open source bits

9. Party Like It's 1998
● Pros and Cons of A:
● Con: It's really expensive
● Con: It's difficult to change course
● Pro: Will (probably) be easier to deploy, configure
and admin
● Conclusion: how much is your business agility
worth?

10. Party Like It's 1998
● Pros and Cons of B:
● Con: It's really expensive
● Con: A lot of necessary customization
● Con: Domain experts are essential
● Pro: I can do whatever I want
– Change on a dime; mix and match vendors
● Conclusion: how much is your agility worth?

11. Party Like It's 1998
● It's not about up-front cost
● It's about agility, fast adoption, iterative course
corrections, no gatekeepers
● Ergo, Open source is necessary for cloud to
exist
● Prediction: every cloud player will utilize open
source on a massive scale

12. The Cloud Ecosystem
● What major companies couldn't exist as we
know them sans open source?
● See Paul Krugman's work on geographic
impact on economies
● Geographic ecosystems emerge and benefit each
other

13. Impact of Cloud
● The opposite isn't true
● Cloud isn't necessary for open source to exist
● What is the impact of cloud on open source?

14. Impact of Cloud
3 possible hypotheses:
● cloud computing deemphasizes software in
general, therefore will reduce production and/or
consumption of open source software
● cloud computing will neither augment nor reduce
production and/or consumption of open source
software
● cloud computing will increase the production and
consumption of open source software

15. Impact of Cloud
I chose #3!
● Prediction: cloud computing will speed up the
development of open source software

16. Hypothesis debunking
● Hypothesis: cloud computing deemphasizes software in general, thus
reducing need for open source software
● yes, local software and traditional desktops are less relevant
– Local computing is also a delivery model, like cloud
● BUT - open source isn't a delivery model, it's a development model
– Cloud computing still needs to run software
– And cloud demands efficiency and agility
– open source will continue to be utilized to build cloud-y services
Prediction: open source will continue to dominate cloud computing, and
the need for open source software will only increase

17. Hypothesis debunking
Hypothesis #2: cloud computing will have no impact on open
source software, because they're orthogonal
● Yes, yes, one is a delivery model, the other is a development
model, therefore there's no causal connection, right?
● competition == increasing demands for agility and efficiency ==
open source
● competition drives community participation
● increasing popularity of cloud computing will drive increasing usage
of open source software
● separation of services from software actually makes this
easier – ie. Open core is dead

18. Hypothesis Bunking
Hypothesis #3: cloud computing drives more open source
software + participation
● if #1 and #2 are false, then #3 must be true!
● if open source software gives companies more agility and helps
them deliver services more efficiently, then there is definite ROI
● therefore, a company would be foolish not to invest in open
source development
● the adoption-led model of open source ties directly into the credo
of cloud computing:
build first, ask questions later

19. The Outer Limits
● Ok fine, Open source begets cloud, which
begets more open source, now what?
Will cloud services be “open sourced”
themselves?
What does that even mean?

20. The Outer Limits
Let's review the software world: Remember 1999? What
happened?
● Linux started the long trek to glory in the data center
● So did apache
● And MySQL. And PostgresQL
● And later Mongo, Hadoop and GlusterFS :)
● And lots of other infrastructure technologies
But open source never took over the desktop/workstation

21. The Outer Limits
● Huh? Android! New mobile paradigm!
● The apps are, alas, mostly non-free
Prediction: cloud services, like mobile apps and
desktop applications, will remain mostly
proprietary/non-free

22. The Outer Limits
● Huh? Android! New mobile paradigm!
● The apps are, alas, mostly non-free
Prediction: cloud services, like mobile apps and
desktop applications, will remain mostly
proprietary/non-free

23. Open Source in Cloud-y World
What does open source mean in a cloud-y world?
● Hypothesis: in a world where the distinction
between copyleft and liberal licensing is
diminished, liberal licensing will grow
I, for one, welcome my new Apache overlords.

24. Open Source in Cloud-y World
GPL was made for local computers
● delivering a service over a network does not
“convey” software, according to the GPL v3
● the central driver of “vanilla” GPL is obviated
● Apache licensing will continue to grow

25. Open Source in Cloud-y World
The Affero GPL was created to address this
● closes the service provider loophole
● copyleft in a cloudy world
● is it enough?

26. Open Source in Cloud-y World
What's the lesson we learned form the desktop?
● JM Keynes and local monopolies for every market
● every market entraps customers, preventing them from leaving
● data matters
● it just wasn't obvious enough in the context of local computing
● the source code was not enough in all contexts
● in a cloudy world, importance of data is magnified
● What does that portend?

27. Lock-in
● The world is full of monopolies
– No such thing as frictionless economy
– Data represents the exit blocker
Entity 1 Entity 2 Entity 3
Entity 4 Entity 5

28. Open Source in a Cloud-y World
Is there an economic driver for Open Data?
● Hypothesis: er... maybe? In some cases.
● In some social media cases, maybe – walled
gardens do not lend themselves to total
openness
● Too much value in keeping some data locked up
● Will competition prove the difference?

29. Open Source in a Cloud-y World
Is there an economic driver for Richard Stallman?
● Probably not
Why is email (mostly) free?
● Competition drove adoption of email standards

30. Summary
● Open source enables cloud computing
● Cloud computing, in turn, enables more open
source
● May not graduate to the service/app/data layer
● NEEDZ MOAR RICHARD STALLMAN

31. Thank You
● My contact info
● johnmark@redhat.com
● Twitter & identi.ca: @johnmark
● http://opencloudinitiative.org/
●
http://gluster.org/