OpenStack Foundation Moves Forward, Taking VMware With It

In the past two weeks, many momentous announcements have arrived surrounding OpenStack, the open source cloud computing framework. As we reported, Rackspace, which has begun calling itself "the open cloud company," announced the release of Rackspace Private Cloud software, built on OpenStack and designed for companies that want to install, test and run a multi-node OpenStack-based private cloud environment. That news, of course, immediately followed Red Hat's announcement of its upcoming OpenStack-based cloud platform, already available in a preview edition. And now, as it releases a significant update to Ubuntu 12.04, Canonical is also doubling down on its OpenStack focus. 

However, one of the biggest OpenStack-related developments of all is taking shape right now, as  the OpenStack Foundation names its leaders, forms its organizational structure and welcomes new members. And, it has just emerged that VMware is one of the new Gold Members.

The OpenStack Foundation is very well funded, and will help development of the platform move along at a solid clip. Considering the number if big tech companies backing the foundation, it could have considerable might in the cloud computing arena.  The foundation has just posted its agenda, available here. One of the citations on the agenda is welcoming new Gold Member VMware, along with Intel and NEC.

Because virtualization and cloud computing are convergent trends, VMware's full status as an OpenStack Foundation member could be significant over time. We might even see VMware deliver and support its own OpenStack distribution.

All of this underscores how much pure momentum the OpenStack platform has picked up in just a matter of months.  To get a real sense of this, just check out the rest of the agenda that the OpenStack Foundation has set for itself.