VMware will have to wait a little longer to join OpenStack

VMware is not yet an official Gold member of the OpenStack Foundation. Nor is Intel or NEC.  The applications of all three companies to join the open-source cloud coalition were not heard as planned at the Foundation’s first meeting Tuesday.

The reason? The confab ran very long — seven hours — and the group didn’t get to the applications, according to Jonathan Bryce, the foundation’s executive director.

“This was the first board meeting and we covered a lot of topics including basic finance and compensation things, but we ran out of time,” Bryce said. The applications will be considered at a future meeting, the date to be determined.

News that VMware wanted to be part of the effort was surprising to many. VMware pushes its proprietary vCloud as the OS of choice for the cloud while OpenStack is viewed as a counterweight to proprietary software. In April, just after Citrix backed CloudStack as a rival to OpenStack and Eucalyptus, a VMware VP referred to the three open-source cloud contenders as the ugly stepsisters to vCloud’s Prince Charming.

On the other hand, it wasn’t all that shocking. VMware has shown growing acceptance of open source, backing its Cloud Foundry as an open platform as a service entry. More recently, VMware just bought Nicira — an OpenStack participant — for $ 1.2 billion.

There seems no doubt that the VMware’s membership will happen at some point in the upcoming months. The question is whether the company will limit its input to software-defined networking issues or take a broader role across the board. Or, as some have suggested,  maybe it will use the membership to keep an eye on a rival from inside its camp.



GigaOM