VMware expands open source presence by joining Linux Foundation

After supporting the open source world passively for a long time, VMware has finally joined the Linux Foundation as a Gold member. This will help the company become an active player in the open source community. “The open source community will benefit from VMware’s wealth of talent and resources, as we collaborate to solve technology challenges from the data centre to cloud infrastructure and beyond,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, the Linux Foundation, in a joint statement.

VMware has already contributed to some Linux Foundation projects such as Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP), Cloud Foundry and Open vSwitch. This has apparently brought the Dell subsidiary closer to the open source world. “VMware looks forward to working more closely with the open source community, and we know this involvement will enable ever better solutions and services for our customers,” stated Dirk Hohndel, vice president and chief open source officer, VMware.

The Gold members of the Linux Foundation include Accenture, Blackrock, Citrix, Doky, Facebook, Hart, Panasonic, SUSE, Toshiba and Toyota. Semiconductor manufacturer Renesas became a Gold member recently.

This is not the first time that VMware has leaned towards open source. The Palo Alto, California-headquartered company started favouring community efforts in the enterprise-focused market with the release of its vSphere integrated container code. In January 2017, VMware even partnered with the Linux Foundation for its Open-O project. That partnership was primarily aimed at constructing the future of network functions virtualisation (NFV).