This position paper talks about the importance of open source in cloud computing briefly discussing its impact on both service provider market and enterprise market. It also highlights potential pitfalls

1. Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
Before the proliferation of cloud computing, open source software
entered the enterprise IT helping them cut costs, avoid vendor lock-
in and innovate on top of them. It democratized the enterprise
software eventually leading to a newer operational model called
cloud computing. As enterprises moved into a services based world,
the natural question in everyone’s mind was about the usefulness of
source code when everything from infrastructure to applications are
offered as services. This report will critically examine this question
and discuss the importance of open source in the cloud based world
while also pointing out to potential problems.

2. Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
Introduction
The
first
decade
of
21st
century
saw
large-­‐scale
adoption
of
open
source
software
in
the
enterprise
IT
helping
them
break
free
of
expensive
proprietary
software
wherever
applicable.
This
also
lead
to
the
democratization
of
enterprise
software
market,
helping
organizations
cut
costs,
mitigate
risks
and
invest
valuable
resources
for
innovation.
Even
though
open
source
adoption
increased
dramatically
inside
enterprises,
it
is
not
the
only
option
for
enterprises.
As
cloud
computing
rides
similar
path
to
mainstream
adoption,
there
is
a
lingering
question
on
whether
open
source
is
still
relevant
in
the
services
based
world.
Recent
trends
in
the
cloud
infrastructure
and
platforms
market
segments
seems
to
suggest
the
growing
importance
of
open
source
in
the
world
of
cloud
computing.
Cloud
infrastructure
platforms
like
Eucalyptus,
OpenStack
and
Cloud
Stack
along
with
VMware’s
CloudFoundry
and
Red
Hat’s
OpenShift
platforms
are
making
waves
altering
the
shape
and
dynamics
of
early
cloud
marketplace.
As
cloud
computing
services
mature
and
as
more
and
more
enterprises
adopt
cloud
computing,
what
will
be
the
role
of
open
source
inside
and
outside
the
enterprises?
Is
it
still
relevant?
If
yes,
how
it
is
going
to
help
the
enterprises,
in
particular,
and
the
cloud
computing
market,
in
general.
What
are
the
pitfalls
of
trusting
open
source
software?
In
this
report,
we
will
analyze
answers
to
some
of
these
questions.
Open
Source:
Building
Blocks
Of
Cloud
If
we
look
back
at
the
history
of
cloud
computing,
it
is
pretty
straightforward
to
see
that
open
source
is
the
reason
why
cloud
computing
exists
today.
Let
us
start
with
SaaS
that
evolved
from
the
web
services
idea
from
the
Web
2.0
era.
Even
though
open
source
is
not
the
reason
for
the
existence
of
web
services
today,
it
played
a
critical
role
in
the
evolution
and
eventual
adoption
of
web
services.
The
availability
of
LAMP
stack
at
a
much
affordable
cost
(free
in
many
cases)
helped
accelerate
the
proliferation
of
web
services
and
the
Web
2.0
economy
of
the
late
90s.
Even
though
ASPs
(Application
Service
Providers)
were
ahead
of
historical
timeline
compared
to
SaaS,
they
faltered
for
various
reasons
including
lack
of
modern
architecture
and
delivery
mechanisms.
The
idea
of
web
services
and
proliferation
of
many
open
source
tools
for
enabling
web
scale
architecture
(including
the
world
wide
web
itself)
helped
SaaS
providers
gain
traction
in
the
market.
Infrastructure
as
a
Service
(IaaS)
took
a
similar
path
with
tremendous
help
from
open
source
licensing.
Imagine
if
Amazon
had
to
rely
on
proprietary
software
when
they
wanted
to
offer
Infrastructure
as
a
Service?
Without
going
into
the
hardware
costs
associated
to
meet
the
requirements
of
many
proprietary
software,
think
about
the
difficulty
associated
with
convincing
a
proprietary
vendor
to
alter
their
licensing
terms
so
that
Amazon
could
offer
infrastructure
services.
In
short,
it
is
next
to
impossible
as
software
vendors
will
clearly
resist
innovation
that
could
potentially
disrupt
their
business.
Clearly,
Amazon
depended
on
the
open
source
software
to
innovate
a
new
model
of
offering
IT
services
which
we
call
as
cloud
computing
today.
It
is
a
similar
story
with
Google
too.
There
are
many
cloud
services
built
on
top
of
proprietary
software
today
but
they
are
more
of
a
market
reaction
than
any
innovation.

3. Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
Open
Source
in
a
Services
Market?
No,
it
is
irrelevant
When
cloud
computing
was
taking
off
in
2008
and
AWS
was
synonymous
with
cloud,
Tim
O’
Reilly,
a
well
known
technology
pundit
and
an
advocate
of
open
source,
published
a
blog
post
arguing
that
in
a
services
based
world,
open
architecture
(in
terms
of
open
protocols
and
formats)
triumphs
licensing.
he
essentially
argued
that
when
compute
resources
are
consumed
as
services,
having
source
code
doesn’t
make
any
sense
to
users.
Instead,
he
argued,
it
is
important
to
focus
on
open
protocols
and
open
formats
so
that
users
are
not
locked
into
any
vendor.
Based
on
this
school
of
thought,
a
group
of
advocates
launched
Open
Cloud
Initiative
which
puts
focus
on
open
protocols
and
formats
than
the
source
code.
Yes,
it
is
critical
There
is
another
school
of
thought,
to
which
I
belong,
that
argues
that
even
though
open
protocols
and
open
formats
are
important
to
avoid
vendor
lock-­‐in,
open
source
is
not
just
relevant
but
also
critical
for
the
cloud
market.
Open
source
cloud
infrastructure
software
like
Eucalyptus,
OpenStack
and
CloudStack
(along
with
other
smaller
initiatives)
are
highlighting
the
importance
on
the
Infrastructure
as
a
Service
space
while
CloudFoundry,
WSO2,
Cloudify,
Ironfoundry
and
OpenShift
are
gaining
traction
on
the
Platform
as
a
Service
(PaaS)
space.
One
of
the
criticisms
against
these
open
source
projects
is
their
lack
of
traction
when
compared
to
Amazon
Web
Services.
On
the
infrastructure
side,
AWS
has
a
head
start
against
these
open
source
projects,
especially
OpenStack,
and
it
will
take
some
time
before
these
projects
gain
traction.
More
importantly,
if
we
consider
the
entire
infrastructure
market
which
IaaS
is
expected
to
disrupt,
AWS
itself
has
a
very
small
marketshare
and
there
are
plenty
of
opportunities
for
these
open
source
platforms
to
gain
their
marketshare.
As
enterprises
embrace
infrastructure
services
in
large
numbers,
we
will
see
this
market
reshaping
differently
even
if
AWS
continues
to
extend
their
lead.
As
far
as
criticism
against
CloudFoundry
and
OpenShift,
the
entire
PaaS
market
is
in
its
nascent
stage
and
it
will
be
anything
from
3-­‐5
years
before
PaaS
becomes
mainstream.
Importance
of
Open
Source
in
Cloud
Computing
Even
though
the
proponents
of
Open
Cloud
Initiative
make
a
case
for
open
protocols
and
formats
over
open
source,
it
should
be
noted
that
it
is
possible
to
dodge
open
protocols
with
open
source
software.
As
we
will
explain
in
the
section
below,
even
though
open
standards
can
help
users
avoid
vendor
lock-­‐in
to
a
certain
degree,
the
usual
lock-­‐in
happens
at
the
architectural
level.
Open
source
based
infrastructure
services
can
help
mitigate
these
lock-­‐in
risks
even
though
it
doesn’t
always
eliminate
it.
There
are
many
advantages
of
open
source
both
from
the
cloud
service
provider
perspective
and
the
enterprise
perspective.
We
will
highlight
some
of
the
important
ones
below.
Service
Providers
Even
though
open
protocols
are
important
in
reducing
the
vendor
lock-­‐in
risks,
the
natural
tendency
of
the
market
system
towards
consolidation
means
that
we
will
end
up
with
a
handful
of
cloud
providers

4. Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
serving
the
world’s
computing
needs.
It
is
akin
to
wireless
services
industry
in
US
where
end
customers
are
affected
by
the
monopoly
of
handful
of
providers.
Handful
of
cloud
providers
will
lead
to
lack
of
competition
in
the
market
leading
to
increased
risks
of
higher
costs,
lack
of
innovation,
etc..
Moreover,
a
market
served
by
handful
of
cloud
providers
like
AWS,
Microsoft,
Google,
etc.
cannot
meet
the
diverse
compute
needs
of
the
world
including
regulatory
requirements.
As
world
gets
more
and
more
globalized
and
as
more
and
more
countries
participate
in
the
global
economy
due
to
newer
technologies
like
cloud
computing,
social,
mobile,
etc.,
the
computing
needs
are
going
to
be
even
more
diverse.
A
standardized
set
of
services
from
a
handful
of
cloud
providers
implies
users
reprioritizing
their
needs
to
take
advantage
of
IT
services
available
in
the
market
rather
than
the
market
meeting
the
needs
of
the
end
users.
This
is
clearly
not
going
to
work.
Similarly,
the
handful
of
service
providers
cannot
have
datacenters
in
countries
around
the
world
and
they
cannot
meet
the
regulatory
requirements
of
users
in
many
of
these
countries.
A
federated
ecosystem
of
cloud
providers
is
needed
to
meet
these
diverse
compute
and
regulatory
needs.
Open
source
cloud
infrastructure
platforms
offer
an
opportunity
for
service
providers
around
the
world,
including
hundreds
of
datacenters
built
around
the
world
and
even
smaller
regional
hosters,
to
offer
cloud
services
as
open
source
software
lowers
the
barriers
to
entry
considerably.
Service
providers
can
take
advantage
of
software
like
OpenStack
or
CloudStack
and
build
cloud
services
that
can
meet
the
needs
of
wide
variety
of
users
around
the
world,
from
small
businesses
to
large
enterprises.
Problems
like
network
latency,
local
support
requirements,
etc.
will
make
regional
cloud
providers
an
attractive
option
for
many
cloud
customers.
The
future
of
cloud
services
is
going
to
be
federated
and
open
source
software
is
going
to
help
in
the
proliferation
of
such
an
ecosystem
by
lowering
the
barrier
to
entry
for
smaller
service
providers.
A
good
example
to
highlight
this
possibility
is
the
proliferation
of
shared
hosting
providers
to
meet
the
varying
needs
even
when
the
hosting
market
was
heavily
commoditized.
Thus,
open
source
will
ensure
competition
in
the
cloud
service
provider
market
helping
drive
innovation
at
a
rapid
pace.
Enterprises
As
enterprises
start
using
cloud
services,
they
understand
that
a
standardized
set
of
services
offered
by
handful
of
cloud
providers
cannot
help
them.
Today’s
modern
enterprise
is
a
good
mixture
of
modern
web
applications
along
with
legacy
applications.
The
first
generation
of
cloud
services
like
AWS,
based
on
commodity
servers,
alone
cannot
meet
their
needs.
Enterprises
have
varying
needs
on
performance,
reliability,
security
and
compliance.
Hybrid
clouds
are
going
to
solve
the
enterprise
needs
along
with
a
federated
ecosystem
of
cloud
providers.
Open
source
cloud
platforms
are
important
as
they
give
enterprises
a
seamless
hybrid
cloud
experience
without
exorbitant
costs
and
lock-­‐in
risks.
At
a
recent
Enterprise
PaaS
conference
called
DeployCon
2012,
the
CTO
of
Warner
Music
Group
(WMG)
was
talking
about
how
their
organization
is
taking
advantage
of
PaaS
to
meet
the
needs
of
their
customers
who
access
media
from
many
different
devices
over
the
internet.
During
his
keynote,
he
talked
about
WMG’s
expectations
from
cloud
services.
One
of
the
key
points
he
highlighted
was
how
he
wanted
the
service
to
be
available
on
private
fabric
as
well
as
a
hosted
offering.
He
then
talked
about

5. Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
how
they
used
CloudFoundry
to
build
a
platform
for
their
organization.
Even
though
it
is
not
a
necessary
condition,
it
is
evident
that
lack
of
restrictions
offered
by
open
source
license
of
CloudFoundry
and
its
modular
architecture
made
it
easy
for
them
to
have
a
platform
suitable
for
their
needs.
This
requirement
is
not
specific
to
WMG
alone
but
most
of
my
conversations
with
CTOs
and
CIOs
of
modern
enterprises
highlight
this
point.
Open
source
platforms
accelerate
enterprise
innovation
as
the
lower
costs
and
flexibility
helps
them
focus
their
valuable
resources
on
technical
innovations
that
has
direct
impact
on
their
business.
Potential
Pitfalls
With
Open
Source
Cloud
Software
Even
though
open
source
offers
numerous
advantages,
it
also
has
some
pitfalls
that
could
have
an
impact
in
large-­‐scale
adoption.
In
this
section,
we
will
highlight
some
of
these
potential
pitfalls.
• Even
though
open
source
significantly
reduces
vendor
lock-­‐in
and
interoperability
issues,
there
is
no
guarantee
that
open
source
can
eliminate
them.
For
example,
even
within
the
OpenStack
service
provider
ecosystem,
there
are
many
service
providers
like
HP
Cloud
services
who
add
value
added
services
on
top
of
the
core
OpenStack
platform
or
certain
customizations
to
it
but
the
code
may
not
be
contributed
back
to
the
original
project.
This
increases
the
compatibility
risks
but
these
risks
are
significantly
less
than
those
associated
with
proprietary
platforms.
• Some
of
the
open
source
platforms
are
still
not
mature
enough
for
production
services.
Over
time,
as
the
code
matures,
this
will
change
and
these
platforms
will
be
used
by
both
service
providers
and
enterprises.
• Some
of
the
open
source
cloud
distributions,
like
some
of
the
OpenStack
distributions,
require
some
specialized
hardware
or
vendor
specific
hardware,
ruling
out
the
use
of
certain
commodity
servers
or
existing
hardware.
This
is
not
specific
to
these
open
source
distribution
alone
as
most
of
the
proprietary
solutions
has
rigid
hardware
requirements.
• Except
for
vendor
centric
open
source
software
like
Eucalyptus,
OpenShift,
WSO2,
CloudFoundry,
etc.,
some
of
the
community
driven
Open
Source
projects
are
plagued
with
lack
of
solid
vendor
support.
It
is
important
to
take
this
into
account
while
planning
the
cloud
strategy.
• Some
of
these
open
source
cloud
platforms
have
Apache
licenses.
There
is
always
a
risk
of
the
project
or
one
of
its
forks
moving
to
proprietary
license
in
the
future.
Conclusion
In
spite
of
some
of
the
pitfalls
described
in
the
previous
section,
open
source
cloud
platforms
and
the
federated
ecosystem
of
cloud
providers
enabled
by
these
platforms
stand
as
a
good
alternative
to
proprietary
services.
Even
though
Amazon
Web
Services
has
a
runaway
lead
over
other
cloud
services
and
platforms,
it
is
still
a
very
small
piece
of
the
infrastructure
market
pie.
As
enterprise
adoption
of
cloud
services
increase,
the
market
will
reshape
with
open
source
as
a
compelling
and
competitive
alternative
to
proprietary
services
and
products.
Even
though
the
federated
ecosystem
of
cloud

6. Open
Source
And
Cloud
Computing
A
Position
Paper
by
Krishnan
Subramanian
providers
may
appear
to
be
a
pipe
dream
today,
we
are
still
at
the
beginning
stages
of
this
evolution.
As
products
like
OpenStack
and
CloudStack
mature,
we
will
be
seeing
more
and
more
service
providers
evolve
themselves
into
cloud
service
providers.
After
all,
the
hundreds
of
datacenters
around
the
world
are
not
going
to
convert
themselves
into
football
fields.
They
will
take
advantage
of
open
source
software
and
compete
in
the
cloud
service
provider
space.
We
are
going
to
see
innovation
in
many
areas
on
top
of
these
federated
offerings
including
search
and
discovery,
workload
automation,
etc..
Open
source
not
only
empowers
users
in
terms
of
reduced
costs
and
much
reduced
risks,
it
also
serves
as
a
platform
for
innovation.