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Some eyebrows were raised when Citrix released the code of CloudStack to the Apache Software Foundation, having acquired Cloud.com, the makers of CloudStack, for $200 million, a few months earlier.
From a traditional business perspective giving away the ownership and governance of a project you have just paid $200 million to acquire is wrong and doesn't make much sense. But Citrix has taken the view that you don't have to 'own' the 'IP' or control the process to get the best out of free and open source software, and you don't have to own the code to influence its shape and development.
Giving the code away may pull in developers and free resources. Swapping the cares and responsibilities of ownership and governance for a lighter touch and a less pervasive influence over the growth of the project will give access to a wider market, a ready-made community and an extended ecosystem with unmatched expertise in web technologies. The greater significance of the donation of CloudStack to Apache may be the recognition by Citrix that it doesn't have to 'own' the process or the code to get the best out of open source.
This is a lesson that the CloudStack developers may have learnt from the experience of their rivals, OpenStack and Eucalyptus, both of which are open source but have encountered problems due to ambiguities around governance or licensing. Open core licensing and overt control of the development process are seen to be a disincentive to OEMs and other participants, and can limit the reach and scope of a project. As a consequence of these perceptions Eucalyptus has revised its open core licensing policy and gone fully open source, and OpenStack is looking to create a foundation of its own.
Citrix has gone a step further, and has removed all ambiguities around the licensing, ownership and control of the project, which was previously 'open core'. The company will hope to find its reward in its ability to package, install and support the code, free of the cost and responsibility that comes with owning the source.
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From a traditional business perspective giving away the ownership and governance of a project you have just paid $200 million to acquire is wrong and doesn't make much sense. But Citrix has taken the view that you don't have to 'own' the 'IP' or control the process to get the best out of free and open source software, and you don't have to own the code to influence its shape and development.
Giving the code away may pull in developers and free resources. Swapping the cares and responsibilities of ownership and governance for a lighter touch and a less pervasive influence over the growth of the project will give access to a wider market, a ready-made community and an extended ecosystem with unmatched expertise in web technologies. The greater significance of the donation of CloudStack to Apache may be the recognition by Citrix that it doesn't have to 'own' the process or the code to get the best out of open source.
This is a lesson that the CloudStack developers may have learnt from the experience of their rivals, OpenStack and Eucalyptus, both of which are open source but have encountered problems due to ambiguities around governance or licensing. Open core licensing and overt control of the development process are seen to be a disincentive to OEMs and other participants, and can limit the reach and scope of a project. As a consequence of these perceptions Eucalyptus has revised its open core licensing policy and gone fully open source, and OpenStack is looking to create a foundation of its own.
Citrix has gone a step further, and has removed all ambiguities around the licensing, ownership and control of the project, which was previously 'open core'. The company will hope to find its reward in its ability to package, install and support the code, free of the cost and responsibility that comes with owning the source.
For original news source visit:
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