Rackspace borgs OpenStack project cloud brains

OpenStack co-founder Rackspace is buying the brains behind the other half of the open-source cloud project, in a deal that radically alters who runs the initiative. The Reg has learned that Rackspace is buying Anso Labs, the tiny software and services specialist who designed and built the Nova compute fabric that underpins …

[joshuamckenty]

Not quite...

I left Anso Labs, and my position as Chief Cloud Architect, shortly before the acquisition by Rackspace. I have retained my seat on the Project Oversight Committee, as the founder and CEO of Piston Cloud Computing, Inc.

Additionally, Vishvananda Ishaya, while an Anso employee and therefore now a Rackspace employee, was elected to the POC by a large majority of OpenStack community members.

Although we continue to be vigilant to any possible problems with the community-driven governance model, so far the only complaints about it have been from outsiders. NTT, for instance, have had substantial influence on the architecture of the project, and have successfully contributed a large number of features (IPv6 support, etc) in the last release. As in any open source project of this size, working code trumps any perceived or proposed authority.

The Anso Labs acquisition is great news for OpenStack - it will allow some of the most core project contributors to continue to focus on what's best for the platform, with less concern over (and vulnerability to) the vagaries and politics of government subcontracting.

Joshua McKenty

formerly, NASA Nebula Chief Architect

Founder, Piston.cc