Linux Foundation Releases 2015 Guide to the Open Cloud

Free directory outlines growing number of open cloud projects for enterprise IT

SAN FRANCISCO, January 20, 2015 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced the release of its 2015 report “Guide to the Open Cloud: Open Cloud Projects Profiled.”

This is its second paper on the open cloud and adds many new projects and technology categories that have gained importance in the past year. The report covers well-known projects like Cloud Foundry, OpenStack, Docker and Xen Project, and up-and-comers such as Apache Mesos, CoreOS and Kubernetes.

The purpose of this guide is to serve as a starting point for users considering which projects to use in building and deploying their own open clouds. Taking a deeper look into cloud infrastructure, the paper includes storage, provisioning and platform projects. New categories outline emerging cloud operating systems, Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) technologies.

“Our new ‘Guide To the Open Cloud’ is a helpful primer for any organization beginning a migration to the cloud or moving toward web-scale IT,” said Amanda McPherson, chief marketing officer at The Linux Foundation. “Open source and collaboration are clearly advancing the cloud faster than ever before. Just consider the many OpenStack distributions and ecosystem emerging around Linux containers that didn’t even exist a year ago. Yet, as the open source cloud evolves so quickly, it can sometimes be difficult for enterprises to identify the technologies that best fit their needs.”

The Linux Foundation’s work with numerous cloud computing companies and projects and engagement at its CloudOpen, ApacheCon and MesosCon events helped shape the paper. For ease of reading, each category includes less than 10 projects, evaluated by maturity, number and diversity of contributions, number and frequency of commits, exposure, demonstrated enterprise use, and opinions from open source authorities.

To download the full report, please visit The Linux Foundation’s Publication’s website at: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linux-foundation/guide-to-the-open-cloud

You can also review the entire list in the online Open Cloud Directory on Linux.com at: http://www.linux.com/directory/open-cloud 

The only event designed specifically to advance the open cloud, CloudOpen North America will be held August 17-19, 2015, in Seattle: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/cloudopen-north-america

It unites the projects, technologies and companies that are leading the cloud computing revolution — Ceph, Cloud Foundry, CloudStack, Chef, Gluster, KVM, OpenStack, Puppet, SaltStack, Xen Project and more. Speaking proposals for CloudOpen North America are open until May 1, 2015: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/cloudopen-north-america/program/cfp

The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences including LinuxCon, and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

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