VMware applies to join OpenStack

When OpenStack's board of directors holds its first full board meeting tomorrow, 28 August, GigaOM is reporting that one of the decisions on the agenda is whether to approve, reject or defer VMware, Intel and NEC's applications to join the Foundation as Gold members. VMware has long been seen as the established proprietary opposition to OpenStack's open source cloud platform. The company had open source interests, such as SpringSource, but these interests tended not to be central to the company's virtualisation business.

But in recent months VMware has acquired open source virtual-networking company Nicira, which was already a member of OpenStack, and other companies that have products that work with more than just VMware. Overall, the company looks like it is more prepared to work with other non-VMware-centric platforms and infrastructure, so the application to join OpenStack suggests that it is also prepared to plug into the growing ecosystem around the open source platform. VMware has made no formal announcement at this point about its plans for OpenStack membership or any OpenStack-related products.

The Gold membership of OpenStack is budgeted at 0.025% of revenue, capped at $200,000; according to VMware's application dated 10 August, that calculation results in a fee of $66,666.67. OpenStack has been gaining wide industry support, with Red Hat and IBM joining as Platinum members in April and funding the foundation at half a million dollars per year for at least three years. IBM and Red Hat joined the other Platinum members, AT&T, Canonical, HP, Rackspace, Nebula and SUSE.

At the meeting, the board will also be appointing an executive director, secretary and possibly a chief operating officer for the organisation. The board meeting will be webcast; details are available in the agenda.

(djwm)