Open Source Software in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing and Open Source
The next technology buzz, after internet, telecom, and mobile, is cloud computing. Hype or not, in various names and forms, cloud computing providers – platforms and applications alike – are counting on more than $40B of revenue in 2011 alone, growing to more than $241 billion in 2020, if we believe the recent Forrester report “Sizing The Cloud”.

In simple terms, cloud computing means replacing desktop computers with simple browsing platforms (low power PCs, tablets or smart mobile devices), with all the smarts residing in a powerful set of servers far, far away (in a cloud). Private clouds, virtual private clouds and public clouds cater to enterprise-specific or general public computing demands. Cloud computing technology allows impressive capabilities such as creating virtual servers and adjusting server capabilities such as processing cores and memory, on demand.

Open Source Software in Clouds
Most software applications today incorporate some open source software directly or indirectly (dynamically linked). Developer’s resourcefulness, code reuse, and efficiencies of development make open source an attractive option for all technology organizations. Cloud applications are no exception and many applications deployed in clouds are either entirely open source (think OpenStack or OpenERP Server), or have significant amount of open source in them.

As usual, use of the open source software in a cloud application is governed by certain obligations, usually contained in the associated open source license. Managing compliance with software licenses is like any other quality management process. A good quality assurance process makes sure that the deficiencies are discovered and corrected before a product is released to the market. Once the market discovers a quality problem, correcting the problem would be very costly. Up to now, open source software license management has been more rigorously applied to products that were distributed in volume, such as desktop applications, networking devices, entertainment products or mobile devices. Ownership and licensing issues abound in the mass products domain- think of Sony vs LG, Apple vs the world, Microsoft vs Google, SFLC vs Cisco/Linksys, SFLC vs Samsung/Verison, etc.

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