It is no secret that I happen to be a regular at ApacheCon events.
I love them.
While there are many software conferences with developers, this conference has one of the highest concentrations of folks who actually write tons of code and lead sizable open source communities. This year, however, was even more exciting for me.
As I said in my previous blog, we looked at ApacheCon NA 2014 as our debut, our “coming out” party if you will, and as proof that Pivotal is a strong member of the ASF community. We had a few goals in mind. One, we wanted to share our vision for the future of PaaS in the cloud and how Apache Software and open source communities are the best way to realize that vision. We also wanted to showcase some of the cool stuff in big data that we are working on. Most of all, we just wanted to meet and hang out with as many Apache developers as we possibly could.
It is not easy to tell whether folks come to ApacheCon mostly for scheduled events or for the proverbial “hallway tracks.” Both were excellent this year. The lineup of keynotes was nothing short of amazing, and a few that particularly stuck with me were Jim Zemlin’s keynote on the role of open source foundations in today’s economy and Upayavira’s keynote on the ultimate tool that us human beings all need to keep sharpening. Jim’s keynote stood out—not only did it finally reveal the roots of the Linux Kernel (spoiler: it was started by a shirtless, beer drinking college student) but was also touching on the theme of how different open software foundations can help and complement each other. This was also a theme started by James Watters’ keynote on Monday. Since this was Pivotal’s first time keynoting in front of veterans of the open source movement, we were naturally a little bit nervous. At the end of the day, though, the amount of positive feedback and press coverage proved once again that being transparent and forthcoming is the key to winning trust in open source communities. This is true even if you are coming from a slightly different background.
From the people who I met, I heard that talks were excellent this year. I was able to deliver a few of my own talks (and as a 2nd speaker), but, most of all, I spent time at interactive events (panels, meetups, etc.) It was all good fun except for the part where you end up with action items (something that happened to Marvin Humphrey and myself at the panel on tightening the definition of formal apache releases). The geek in me couldn’t be happier about the lineup of speakers that were invited to the Apache Bigtop meetup. Mark my words, GridGain (presented by Dmitriy Setrakyan) and OSv (presented by Don Marti) are going to be excitingly disruptive in the next few years. Check them both out–I know those of us in the Bigtop community did. And, by the way, if, after reading this blog, you are not dropping everything and porting your cloud application to OSv, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Technology-wise, hacking on OSv at a Bigtop meetup on Tuesday was the absolute highlight of ApacheCon for me.
And then, of course, there were nights. And there were receptions (a commiter reception sponsored by Pivotal and a more general one sponsored by Citrix). And, after all, it was Denver (enough said!). For several mornings, we paid the price, but it was totally worth it.
As I write this, I can’t believe the conference is over. I can’t believe it was time to go home. And of course, I can’t believe how much effort it took to make ApacheCon NA 2014 so good, but yet so effortless.
So, thank you Denver for hosting us. This was my first time to the city, but I’m definitely coming back. Thank you ASF for giving us a chance to feel that we’re part of the family. Thank you Linux Foundation for producing the event. But most of all, I’d like to thank everybody from Pivotal’s ACNA 2014 team—you guys rock! You ended up moving heaven and earth to make it a really memorable event, not a simple sponsorship opportunity.
But you know what this means? ApacheCON NA 2014 is over. Lets rest this weekend, dust off our jackets and get the ball rolling on ApacheCON EU 2014. I hear Budapest is beautiful in November.
For more information:
– Learn about Pivotal and Open Source Software
– See James Watters’ Cloud Foundry Keynote, “The Apache Way in the Cloud with Cloud Foundry”
– See Roman Shaposhnik’s Presentations: Apache Giraph or Building Google-in-a-box
– Check out more about our PaaS—Cloud Foundry or Pivotal CF
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