Companies are increasingly turning to cloud services to build and deliver their applications, but those that want to use an open source cloud may find it more difficult to set up and maintain. Service-providers such as UK-based DataCentred can more efficiently set up an enterprise cloud using open source software, at scale.

“The emergence of Linux as the control-plane of choice provides a consistent platform which allows us massive re-use of tooling and skills,” said Matt Jarvis, head of cloud computing at DataCentred. 

DataCentred was one five companies to join the Linux Foundation as a new corporate member this month, along with Altera, Chelsio Communications, Imagination Technologies and Travelping. (See the full membership announcement.) Here Jarvis tells us more about Datacentred’s business, how they use Linux, and how they’re contributing to innovation in the open source data center.

What is DataCentred?

DataCentred is a leading provider of next-generation datacentre and open-source cloud computing services focusing on clients with big research data sets.

How and why do you use Linux?

Everything we build is built on Linux. We couldn’t operate without its performance, flexibility and toolset, which is a direct result of the strong community and open development approach.

Why did you join the Linux Foundation?

Supporting the communities we rely on is a no-brainer, our business relies on them. That’s not just about contributing and testing code – it’s everything from writing documentation and blogging, through to paying for commercial support where it works. Joining the Linux Foundation is part of that strategy.

What interesting or innovative trends are you witnessing in the data center and what role does Linux play in them?

The emergence of Linux as the control-plane of choice provides a consistent platform which allows us massive re-use of tooling and skills. New hardware platforms like OpenCompute and processor architectures like ARM just wouldn’t be making in-roads into the datacentre if we didn’t have the solid base of a common operating system and tools.

How is Datacentred participating in that innovation?

Virtualised compute, storage, and networking are core to our business, it’s what the company was created to do. Where we innovate is by working out how to do these things on an open-source platform at scale. On the surface of it OpenStack and Ceph provide everything you need, in practice there’s a huge amount of work required in surrounding infrastructure to turn it all into a coherent set of services which are suitable for consumption by organisations wanting to make the transition to cloud services, and to enable us to manage the operations of those platforms.

What other future technologies or industries do you think Linux and open source will increasingly become important in and why?

Linux is everywhere these days, but the massive growth in embedded devices as we move towards the internet of things will undoubtedly be another big opportunity. Open source and the ideas of sharing that are behind it have permeated every part of our digital society, and will continue to drive the collaborative models emerging in many different fields.

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