Open Source and the Open Cloud: Customers Look for Ways to Minimize Future Lock-in

What are the components of the ‘Open Cloud’?  The top two criteria I would have selected are the use of Open standards and to a lesser degree the use of Open Software.

It turns out that when this question was posed by IDC on behalf of the Linux Foundation, the use of open standards and open software ranked high, but not at the top of the list, which I found a bit surprising.  The ratings of Open Cloud components include the following with their ranking on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being very important, as eyeballed off of the graphic appearing in the IDC report:

• 4.1 – Ability to port and access needed data
• 4.0 – Option to run the cloud platform on-premise
• 3.9 – Provides a community that allows participation in the technology
• 3.8 – Suport for Open APIs
• 3.8 – Platform runs on Linux
• 3.6 – Built with Open Source software
• 3.5 – Supports Open Standards
• 3.1 – Ability to source from multiple providers
• 2.0 – Ability to port and access needed applications

With the ability to port and access data ranked as the number one criteria, it would seem that users worry of potential vendor lock-in to applications and systems that allow them to enter data, but which will be difficult to move at some later point to a different system.  The Linux report interprets the high ranking of users desire to see an active community around the technology as a vote of confidence for the open source and collaborative development model pioneered by Linux, a model which they say provided long-term stable support with rapid development.

Other highlights from the IDC report include the following:

94 percent of developers of all stripes, surveyed among both Windows and Linux worlds, say that collaboration and active open source ecosystems are what will drive cloud adoption.

The number of servers running Linux in the cloud best the number for any other operating system.  The IDC report on Linux cites the reason for this as low cost, full transparency, ability to customize, and the collaborative development model.

86 percent of those surveyed say that they plan to build out private clouds in the next 12 months, and in support of that effort, they plan to increase (47 percent) or maintain their current spending level on Linux and other open source software.