We have talked about cloud washing some moments ago, and the topic of cloud washing made hot again, this time by Red Hat, warning us the danger of cloud open-washing. What is it and why it’s important for your business, especially if you are keen to adopt the cloud?
What is cloud open-washing?
What is cloud open-washing? Well, it’s a term describing a cloud vendor claiming that its cloud services are open source when they are in fact closed source.
As reported by CIO, Scott Crenshaw, head of Red Hat’s Cloud Business Unit, raises the case of cloud open-washing at a round table conference in London, saying that some cloud vendors say that they are open for the sake of marketing.
Which companies are doing cloud washing? According to Red Hat, one of the leading open source software companies, VMware and Microsoft are said to be two of some cloud vendors that are skewing the definition of open cloud by claiming that their cloud products are open when they are actually closed.
Crenshaw explained that VMware’s technical architecture is actually reflecting its business model; and that’s not open at all; that’s lock-in. However, VMware insists that it offers open-source solutions, and actually adding using the word “open” in consortiums it joined. Crenshaw also claimed that Microsoft is luring customers into lock-in, by persuading them to use all of Microsoft solutions.
The misleading claims will lead customers into cloud vendor lock-in, limiting innovations, as well as access to more public clouds choices.
How about Red Hat? The company, that have just become the first open source software company generating one billion dollars in annual revenue, remains at the forefront in open hybrid clouds. The clouds allow customers to build their own resources at their own pace, enabling them to replace any parts of the cloud with solutions from other vendors. The open hybrid clouds model is made possible by Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation (RHEV) and OpenShift platform-as-a-service (PaaS) products.
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