Thanks Citrix for the large contributions ! As far as I know, some core members left Citrix in the last two years. I think this deal does not have big impact for us.
-Wei 2016-01-12 17:20 GMT+01:00 Sebastien Goasguen <run...@gmail.com>: > Hi everyone (cross-posting), > > Yesterday Citrix announced that it sold its CloudPlatform business to > Accelerite from Persistent Systems [1] > > As you know CloudPlatform is Citrix’s commercial distribution of Apache > CloudStack. I wanted to share a few thoughts on what this means for > CloudStack. > > One of the core tenet of the Apache Software Foundation is non-affiliation > to companies, as such all of us on these lists participate and contribute > to CloudStack as individuals. While the majority of us who are contributing > daily to CloudStack are actually doing it as part of our day jobs we still > voice our opinions as individuals and companies do not (and should not) > have influence on what we do. This is one of the things that makes ASF > great. This is also one of the reasons why the ASF and us as a project > will not comment on this announcement. It is Citrix’s business, not ours. > > That said, Citrix gave CloudStack to the ASF back in 2012 and contributed > heavily in the early days to its development and maintenance. We should be > thankful to Citrix for donating this software and helping the community > grow. Giving it to the ASF was also the move that allows us to keep on > going like “business” as usual. We as a project do not depend on Citrix. > Hence Citrix selling its CloudPlatform business does not change our day to > day. > > Over the years it is fair to say that Citrix involvement through the many > individuals participating on these lists as diminished, with the vast > majority of the work now carried on by others. If we were to do a ASF > “faux-pas” and actually check affiliation of the folks that are doing most > of the development and release work, we would see other companies than > Citrix. Companies offering CloudStack services but also and mostly > CloudStack users, a few doing it as a hobby and most because their company > uses it. This is open source at its core, folks using a software, loving > it, loving their peers, and contributing back for the benefit of everyone. > > It is impossible for me to say what Accelerite will do, I have had no > contact with them so far and did not know this sale was coming. Neither do > I know what will happen to all the fine Citrix engineers that were still > working on CloudStack. Whatever they do, I wish them the best and thank > them for the dedication to our project over the years. Early indication > from the press release seems to indicate that Accelerite will engage with > us. If they do, we will welcome them like any contributors to an ASF > project. With openness, transparency and respect (the Apache way). > > I do want to mention that I think this may be an opportunity for > CloudStack. Observers might think that our project is dead because of > Citrix selling its business, but they would be mis-informed about the > nature of ASF projects. I actually believe the contrary and think this will > be a time where more users and potentially companies will engage more > actively. They will see that the route to a successful Cloud is through > engaging and becoming part of our community. They will also finally stop > thinking that CloudStack is a Citrix product and that might be the kicker > that brings them on board. > > Finally, being a technical guy, I like to focus on technical things. We > have done some great strides over the past 8 months, we have stabilized > CloudStack and are now releasing faster than ever, we have dockerized, we > have pluginized, we have had several events... In september we will go to > Brazil for CCC. Brazil is seeing a huge growth in CloudStack adoption. > > We still have a ton to do, from removing technical debt, fixing security > issues, improving packaging, making CloudStack ever more easier to develop > and use. This has not changed. We have some very important discussions > going on around LTS and GitHub hosting. If anything I think the container > movement is a bigger threat to our project than Citrix’s announcement. As > companies start to embrace the container ecosystem and building > containerized applications, what happens to CloudStack ? How does > CloudStack work in a container world ? The same question are valid for > OpenStack by the way, I just don’t buy into the Magnum effort, but I > digress :) > > So thank you Citrix, we hope to welcome Accelerite and let’s keep on > Stacking, > > [1] > https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2016/01/11/a-new-home-accelerite-to-acquire-cloudplatform/ > > -Sebastien > VP Apache CloudStack
