WalmartLabs is releasing OneOps cloud technology as open source.
WalmartLabs has announced that it is releasing its cloud code, OneOps, as open source in an effort to free retailers locked into their cloud providers. The retailer has used the system internally for company operations so far, but plans to release the open-source OneOps code for general use by the end of the year, meaning developers could use Walmart’s cloud for pay-as-you-go storage and transfer data in and out of it at any time.
“OneOps is a powerful cloud technology we built ourselves that has transformed the way our engineers develop and launch new products to our customers. They deliver this with more speed and at a lower cost because OneOps helps them (1) avoid the pitfalls of being ‘locked-in’ to a cloud provider, and (2) thrive in WalmartLabs ‘DevOps’ culture – whatever code developers write, they own, from its development to its launch to customers,” read the Walmart announcement.
WalmartLabs explains the four main benefits of OneOps: cloud portability; continuous lifecycle management; faster innovation; and greater abstraction of cloud environments. The post states, “We’re enabling any organization to achieve the same cloud portability and developer benefits that Walmart has enjoyed. And by eliminating the barriers that cloud hosting providers have erected, OneOps will drive them to compete based on price, customer service, and innovation. It’s a winning scenario for all dev-centric organizations.”
And, perhaps, a losing game for Amazon. By making the cloud platform open source, Walmart is taking the fight to Amazon Web Services by giving developers a chance to avoid vendor lock-in, a situation in which companies are stuck to contracts and technologies supplied by one cloud provider. Walmart said that the move should increase competition between cloud service vendors. Reading between the lines, this is a swing at Amazon.
The open source code will allow companies to avoid what WalmartLabs calls the “Hotel California Effect,” where they can “check out but never leave” their cloud providers because they’re “locked-in” to their provider’s APIs, architecture and tools.
ZDNet pointed out some significant aspects of this announcement, including that fact that “there is an increasing open source disruption taking place within the cloud industry, begun by efforts such as HP Helion Eucalyptus and OpenStack and now moving further up the enterprise food chain. Cloud, a disruptive force in its own right, is being disrupted from within.”
And, ZDNet contends, the ability to switch corporate application, systems and data among providers “brings us closer to the ultimate vision of cloud and service-oriented architecture.” And WalmartLabs is also fueling the growth potential of private and hybrid clouds within enterprises, thus upping the cloud game. It is also significant that it is a retailer that is entering the cloud platform space, which ZDNet asserts, “points to the convergence that is taking place between tech and non-tech companies. That is, every company, to one degree or another, regardless of industry, is becoming a software company, as well as a cloud provider. Every company is becoming both publishers and consumers of cloud and API-based services.”
