Xen To Become Linux Foundation Collaborative Project

Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon affirm commitment to the Xen Project, look to Linux Foundation to provide infrastructure, guidance and collaborative network

SAN FRANCISCO {The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit}, April 15, 2013 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the Xen Project is becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.

Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. By spreading the collaborative DNA of the largest collaborative software development project in history, The Linux Foundation provides the essential collaborative and organizational framework so project hosts can focus on innovation and results. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects span the enterprise, mobile and embedded markets and are backed by many of the largest names in computing.

The Xen Project is an open source virtualization platform licensed under the GPLv2 with a similar governance structure to the Linux kernel. Designed from the start for cloud computing, the project has more than a decade of development and is being used by more than 10 million users. As the project experiences contributions from an increasingly diverse group of companies, it is looking to The Linux Foundation to be a neutral forum for providing guidance and facilitating a collaborative network.

The following companies will contribute to and guide the Xen Project as founding members of the Collaborative Project at The Linux Foundation: Amazon Web Services, AMD, Bromium, Calxeda, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix, Google, Intel, Oracle, Samsung and Verizon For comments from these companies, please visit: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-media/announcements/2013/04/supporting-statements-xen-project-contributors

“Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects have at least one thing in common and that is they all use collaborative development to advance and accelerate technology innovation,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “The Xen Project is an important open source community project that provides valuable technology to the entire Linux and open source ecosystem. It’s a natural move for us to help nurture collaboration to advance this technology.”

“The Linux Foundation will provide the necessary forum and guidance for the Xen Project to be adapted by the diverse group of contributors who are taking advantage of the project’s many benefits,” said Peder Ulander, VP, Open Source Solutions, Citrix.  “We’re committed to the Xen Project and look forward to continuing our active participation and collaborating with companies across industries to advance Xen Project for multiple applications.”

Advances in virtualization technologies are key to the ongoing growth of Linux in the enterprise and cloud computing. The open source model thrives when users can exercise freedom of choice, so supporting a range of open source virtualization platforms and facilitating collaboration across open source communities is a priority for The Linux Foundation. In addition to providing the necessary framework to support the Xen Project community’s growth, The Linux Foundation also supports the KVM community by hosting KVM Forum and other activities that support the project.

Recent Xen Project highlights include: 

• The addition of Mirage OS, a library OS that supports the most common web protocols and enables the development of sealed Xen Project appliances that can be run without a guest operating system on any Xen Project based cloud - led by Cambridge University
• Support for ARMv7 and ARMv8 based servers - led by Citrix
• Improvements to Nested Virtualization - led by Intel
• Significant extensions to the Xen Project Security Modules and Flask - led by the National Security Agency
• A new virtualization mode called PVH, which promises to combine the best aspects of hardware virtualization and paravirtualization - led by Oracle
• Significant performance and scalability improvements - led by SUSE

For more information about the Xen Project and to get involved, please visit: http://www.xenproject.org.

The Xen Project 10-Year Birthday Bash Tonight

Celebrating 10 years of development, the Xen Project was originally conceived at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in 2003. A 10-year birthday celebration will be held in conjunction with this week’s Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit and will take place tonight, Monday, April 15, 2013 at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco. Get additional details and RSVP on The Linux Foundation Events website.

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences, including LinuxCon, and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.