Open vSwitch Joins Linux Foundation Open Networking Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO – AUGUST 09, 2016 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration today is announcing that Open vSwitch (OVS) is now a Linux Foundation Project. Open vSwitch is an open source virtual switch designed to enable network automation while supporting standard management interfaces and protocols.

In modern data centers, networking functions are increasingly performed by software running on servers, either as part of the application or within a hypervisor. While the traditional Layer-2 Linux bridge addresses many common networking tasks, Open vSwitch was created with a robust set of features and a high performance design to address the rapidly growing needs of SDN and virtual networking use cases.

Today, OVS is used within multiple commercial products as well as large production environments. OVS has been ported to multiple virtualization platforms, switching chipsets, and networking hardware accelerators. OVS works on a wide variety of systems, including Linux, DPDK, Hyper-V, and FreeBSD. It is used in a variety of SDN applications, including NFV and network virtualization; it is the most widely used networking back-end in OpenStack.

“OVS is a great example of how open source software has enabled the networking industry to match the pace of cloud computing and help advance virtualized technologies,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, The Linux Foundation. “Hosting OVS as a Linux Foundation Project will serve to further collaboration across users and vendors and aid in open technology development throughout the networking stack.”

Contributions to OVS span more than 300 individuals across companies including Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and VMware. The governance is managed by a group of the top committers to the project with a variety of backgrounds and affiliations.

As a project hosted at The Linux Foundation, Open vSwitch will continue its operations under an open governance model and continue accepting contributions from all interested companies and developers. Those looking to participate should visit https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md.

Supporting Comments

Cisco
“The Linux Foundation will make for an excellent umbrella for the highly collaborative OVS project with a community-based technical leadership model similar to the Linux kernel.”
Thomas Graf, Principal Software Engineer, Cisco

IBM
“We continue to enable developers with a wide range of tools to help them create businesses and applications, and today, Open vSwitch is now an integral part of the Linux Foundation. It’s a great move for Open vSwitch to move to the Linux Foundation, accelerating adoption efforts even more through open collaboration. Open vSwitch has become a critical piece of technology to help developers and their businesses move to a software defined and cloud development world. We look forward to continuing to work with the Open vSwitch community in its new home of the Linux Foundation.”
Kyle Mestery, Distinguished Engineer and Director of Open Source Networking, IBM

Red Hat
”We are thrilled with the move of Open vSwitch to the Linux Foundation, and believe that OVS is an important project in the open source networking ecosystem. The governance for OVS in the Linux Foundation is lightweight and serves as a strong example for others to follow. The OVS community is well-aligned with and complements other community projects hosted by the Linux Foundation, making this an ideal new home to help enable the long-term success of the project.”
Chris Wright, Vice President and Chief Technologist, Office of Technology, Red Hat​

VMware
“Having been involved with the OVS project since 2012, it’s been great to see OVS grow into a truly community-supported effort and a critical component of many of the world’s largest data centers. Giving OVS a formal home within the Linux Foundation is a great way to ensure continued investment and community participation in this important open source project.”
Bruce Davie, Chief Technology Officer, Networking, VMware, Inc.

About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

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