Mesosphere launches fully open source version of DC/OS
Mesosphere has just announced the release of its open-source Data Center Operating System (DC/OS). The goal is to provide a single platform that can run everything modern applications need. Developers will be able to use a data center as a computer that runs applications in software containers. Mesosphere is trying to consolidate the community by launching an open-source version of its operating system.
Many heavy hitters have financially supported Mesosphere’s project. Companies like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Autodesk, Cisco, EMC and Accenture have already invested in the project. Microsoft has gone a step further and implemented the DC/OS in its Azure Container Service. These companies are not only invested but they also are using the technology to help develop their own projects.
Mesosphere has already provided open-source features associated with its operating system, but with its latest release they have gone much further. Previously there were many features that were not available for open-source users. However, even after this announcement there still will be features that the user must pay for. Features that will still require money are monitoring tools, security support, compliance tools, and certain networking and load balancing features. It is speculated that Mesosphere main intention was to announce all of the new partnerships it has attained. This is a valid argument because of the fact that Mesosphere has not made its software totally open-source.
Container management systems and data centers such as Kafka, Marathon, Spark, ArangoDB, Chronos, and Jenkins will all be available on the DC/OS. Having all these projects on a single operating system will force them to compete with each other. This will happen because they will no longer be unique because of the particular OS they are programmed for.
Mark Russinovich, Azure Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft has said the following, “Microsoft selected DC/OS for the Azure Container Service so our customers can easily build, deploy and manage modern applications on our enterprise-ready Azure cloud platform, as well as in private and hybrid cloud environments.” The powerful relationships Mesosphere has created will only advance the open-source community, hopefully leading to easier implementation of complex containers over a variety of software applications.
