The real definition of "openness" in cloud computing technology

The author of this article, David Linthicum, is CTO of the Bick Group and a recognized expert in the business computing community. Over the past decade, he has focused on technology and strategy research related to cloud computing and how to make cloud computing a better service to modern companies. He expressed his views on the recent "openness" of cloud computing, which is popular in the industry.

Dosoft Software Online November 3 International report at the Cloud Expo conference this week, I heard too much about the word "open." This is not only a question of cloud computing, but in most software worlds "openness" has become almost a religious belief. Technicians often think they need to use "open" technology, but they don't understand what "openness" means.

The idea is persuasive. We all want to be able to invest in technologies that can work well with other "open" technologies, and we are not independent of suppliers because it is "open" sources. So we can include our own investment in these technologies.

Obviously, this wish will be applied to the technology of cloud computing. As a result, in the area of cloud computing, the "open" standard organization emerges. This week, for example, the Open Data Center Consortium was set up to guide it vendors to support the Open first cloud computing world. Of course, there is the Open Cloud Computing Alliance, which focuses on supplier and industry cooperation to ensure that the cloud is open, including the use of open cloud testing platforms.

But the truth of the matter is that "openness" is used at such a high frequency, but it has no meaning or value. I think it's just a marketing tool. It may also be time to draw a line to show the true meaning of openness.

The following are the definitions I provide:

First, the supplier must provide the core cloud technology or the service code, rather than the so-called "open source version" of many vendors, it should not be in the individual code tree project itself, should be supplied by the supplier to the customer to use.

Second, the supplier must have feedback, fix, and return the new external functionality to the core code tree.

Finally, the supplier sued the person who used its core products and built better products, or included other products.

You will find that, under these three conditions, only a very small number of cloud technologies are open.