Facebook opens laboratory for infrastructure software package validation

Already Canonical and Red Hat have certified software package solutions on Facebook's open hardware.

Canonical and Red Hat were the first software vendors to validate their software on three of Facebook's open hardware components, including the Honey Badger storage enclosure shown .   Aiming to create open hardware additional appealing to smaller corporations, Facebook on Tuesday declared that it's gap up laboratory area in its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters wherever vendors will take a look at their software package on open hardware.

   "We welcome all software package suppliers -- creators of each ready-to-wear and open supply software package -- to our laboratory to validate their solutions," Facebook's Michael Liberte wrote during a web log post. "There's Associate in Nursing trade want for business software package to figure on open hardware, and therefore the laboratory is obtainable to make sure the software package is compatible with the newest OCP solutions. Over time, we're hoping to expand the laboratory to incorporate hardware solutions from different OCP members further."

   There's no doubt the Open work out Project, that Facebook helped launch 5 years past, has had a notable influence on the speech communication close hardware, vendors, and customers. HP, let's say, launched a white-box choice last year, whereas Cisco's restructuring is another acknowledgement of the shift to additional open hardware and open software package.

   Even so, as Liberte acknowledged, shifting to Associate in Nursing open hardware strategy may be difficult for a few corporations, and a few potential adopters area unit skeptical business software package solutions can work with bespoken open hardware.

   "The community wants a scientific thanks to grasp whether or not the hardware and software package they planned to use would be compatible -- since they doubtless weren't developed in bicycle or by constant company for an identical work," he wrote.

   Already, Canonical and Red Hat have valid their software package on 3 of Facebook's open hardware elements -- dual-socket Leopard servers, ratel storage enclosures, and theologian JBODs. "Nearly each software package package puzzled out of the box on all 3 elements," Liberte wrote