This year, we celebrate 15 years of OpenStack! Over the past 10 years working at the OpenInfra Foundation, the thing I’ve come to love most about my role is getting to see, up close, the global impact of the open source software our ecosystem builds and uses for mission critical infrastructure. A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet our OpenInfra User Group in Japan and, as always, it was an impactful meeting with a group of kind volunteers that advocate for the power of open source technologies. I was really excited to bring the news of the most impactful open source foundations joining forces: the Linux Foundation and OpenInfra Foundation.

Today, I’m delighted to introduce the 80+ members that have joined the OpenInfra Foundation under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation. We’d like to give a special thank you to the Platinum Members who play a strategic role in advancing OpenInfra technologies: Ant Group, Cachengo, Ericsson, Huawei, Okestro, Rackspace, and Wind River. 

These are organizations and individuals I have the opportunity to work with daily. Much like our OpenInfra User Group in Japan, they believe in our mission to help drive open source innovation from the data center to the edge. They’re not only deploying cutting-edge infrastructure, but also training the next generation of open source engineers and modernizing critical systems around the world.

From digital sovereignty to the AI revolution, it’s never been more clear that open source technologies are necessary for evolution in infrastructure technology. This is where the global OpenInfra ecosystem has already proven to be powerful. They have disrupted the hyperscaler hold and established an impressive footprint of over 300 public cloud data centers powered by OpenStack and thousands of deployments of OpenStack, Kata Containers, StarlingX, and Zuul. Coupled with the 110,000 individual members in 185+ countries, these organizations will continue to build and deploy open source infrastructure technologies at scale. 

As Thierry Carrez, General Manager of OpenInfra, recently noted, “Today the world needs infrastructure that can be sovereign, yet interoperable. Infrastructure that is performant, yet secure. Infrastructure that uses latest generation hardware, yet is sustainable and durable. Infrastructure that cooperates more intimately with its workloads, whether those imply containers, AI frameworks or secure enclaves.” 

We’re at a digital crossroads in areas like data sovereignty, AI legislation, and software licensing. Will organizations continue to walk down the road of unreliable proprietary software vendors and the exorbitant cost escalations and security concerns of today’s hyperscalers? Or will they walk down the road that thousands of global companies in our open ecosystem have paved with demand exceeding $9 trillion? I am confident open source offers the most trustworthy, feature robust option, from the data center to the edge, powered by technologies like Linux, OpenStack, and Kubernetes.

As we build the next evolution of open source software, a unified voice from the Linux Foundation, OpenInfra Foundation, CNCF, and the global network of OpenInfra Members has never been more important. Join us on this journey as we build the future of open source infrastructure.