OpenStack Foundation to oversee cloud platform

The OpenStack open source cloud project is to be put on a more independent footing with the creation of the OpenStack Foundation to take over management of the community and its development work.

OpenStack founder Rackspace said that it will set up the OpenStack Foundation in 2012 and transfer the project's intellectual property and other assets, along with management of the OpenStack community.

The move is being made to ensure that the project is not controlled by any one vendor, and to encourage a broader range of contributors to join the OpenStack community.

"It's something that people have talked about and said we should do or shouldn't do for a while," said Jonathan Bryce, founder of the Rackspace Cloud and chairman of the OpenStack policy board.

Since its creation, OpenStack has been effectively owned by Rackspace, which manages the project and processes and employs all the people involved on a full-time basis.

"We did it that way because, when we launched it, we were almost the only company involved and we didn't know if anyone else was going to get involved, but over the last year it has really exploded," Bryce said.

The number of companies and organisations backing OpenStack now number well over 100, including major industry players such as Citrix, Cisco, HP and Dell.

However, Bryce added that "we now feel like it's a good thing to transition it to a broadly led foundation".

The move should not affect the future development of OpenStack, according to Bryce, as the roadmap is largely driven by the developers and technical leaders within the community.

"The big change is that the trademark and the management of the community will not be done wholly by Rackspace anymore," he said.

Another advantage is that OpenStack should be protected against the machinations of any single company in the future, such as if Rackspace were to be acquired by a larger company that might wish to shut it down or assert more proprietorial control.

"If Rackspace wanted to do something bad, if we were acquired by another company who wanted to do something bad, OpenStack will be protected because it won't be owned by any one company. It will be not for profit and independent from any single vendor," Bryce said.

OpenStack recently released the fourth major version of the platform, Diablo, with a fifth release called Essex on the roadmap for next year. The latter is set to add virtual networking enhancements.