Open Source and Cloud Computing Series – Introduction

Richard Stallman (via last.fm)

Open Source has played a major role in the progress of Cloud Computing. The
Open Stack like LAMP are the ones that provide the backbone to many Cloud based
solutions. Hadoop is transforming the way organizations and companies use Cloud.
Whether you are an enthusiastic geek trying to set up a Cloud like
infrastructure at the basement or an enterprise trying to run a private cloud
inside the firewall, Open Source software like Hadoop and Eucalyptus  are playing a significant
role.

Most of the Open Source software in the Cloud marketplace are doing the hard
work behind the scenes. In this series, I am going to talk about various Open
Source software in the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS domains. The idea is to create a
repository of information about all Open Source Software in the field of Cloud
Computing.

Does Open Source matter in the Clouds? If you ask Tim O’ Reilly,
he will say it doesn’t matter and emphasize more on Open Architecture, Open
Formats, etc.. In fact, he is right in his own way. Then there are people like
Richard Stallman who dismiss Cloud Computing outright. I don’t agree with
Richard Stallman when he demonizes Cloud Computing as a backdoor attempt to push
proprietary software. In my earlier
post, I have decried such attempts to demonize Cloud Computing.

I know purists in the Free Software world may not agree with me. Like Richard
Stallman, they will argue that Cloud based services are proprietary blackhole
and it should be avoided at all cost. Being an insider (an ardent supporter of
Free Software), I have a question to my fellow Free Software enthusiasts and
evangelists. Did we ever worry about the code that went into the integrated
chips that were part of the machines on which we ran our Free Software Didn’t we
abstract it out as hardware and not bother about the proprietary code, design,
etc. inside them? Why can’t we do the same with Cloud based services? Why can’t
we abstract out the software, offered as a service, and worry about other
important things like Open Formats, Data Ownership, Data Portability, etc.? Why
can’t we abstract out the Cloud Storage service and see if we can manage our
data using Open Protocols on them? Yes, We Can. If we accept this kind of
abstraction in Cloud Services and embrace it

By saying this, I am not implying that Open Source is irrelevant in Cloud
Computing. Rather, it was an argument against the belief system Richard Stallman
was trying to promote. In fact, I want Richard Stallman and some others in the
Free Software world, who dismiss Cloud Computing, to realize that Open Source
(well, Free Software too) has a very important role to play in shaping the path
taken by Cloud Computing. If they embrace this concept, they can play a
significant role in ensuring that users of Cloud Computing are empowered much in
the same way they helped raise the consciousness of desktop computing users
towards open source. The focus in this series is to showcase the Open Source
Products/Projects and their roles in IaaS, PaaS and SaaS so that everyone can
understand the importance of Open Source in Cloud Computing.

PS: BTW, I will be giving a presentation titled “The Importance of Open
Source in a SaaS World” at Cloudslam
’09.