The Cloud is Just Another Sun
Kyle Rankin
Chief Security Officer
Purism, SPC
Trigger Warning
- Veterans of the UNIX Wars
- Proprietary software developers
- Cloud users.
We Won!
- Linux and FOSS is everywhere!
- In your pocket
- In your home
- In your company's code
- In the Cloud
- Microsoft loves Linux.
Who Lost?
- Microsoft
- Sun
- Research in Motion
- Proprietary UNIX
- Proprietary Embedded OSes.
We Won?
- If we won, we are losing what we gained
- Shareware
- Your company's code
- Open Core
- The Cloud
- We are returning to the time before the rise of Linux and FOSS
- Same play, new actors
- How can we apply what happened then, to today?
The UNIX Wars
- The network is the computer
- File storage, computation, desktops, all on the network
- Mainframes became large UNIX servers
- Solaris vs AIX vs HP-UX vs IRIX vs DEC
- Proprietary OS, but open (POSIX) APIs
- GNU tools added on top
- Amazing engineering teams
- Focus more on hardware features, redundancy
- Assumption you get everything from single vendor.
The Cloud Wars
- The network is the computer
- File storage, computation, desktops, on the network
- Large local servers became small remote VMs
- AWS vs GCP vs Azure vs Oracle
- Proprietary but published APIs
- FOSS tools added on top
- Amazing engineering teams
- Focus on software features, redundancy
- Assumption you get everything from single vendor.
Dotcom Boom
- ____, but on the Internet!
- Massive push for new websites
- Lots of servers
- Huge data center growth
- Sun/Solaris dominates
- Sun hardware running NSCA or Netscape web server, C/Java middleware, Oracle databases
- Software development on proprietary workstations
- "We are the dot in .com".
Dotcom Boom 2.0
- ____, but in the Cloud!
- Massive push for new web services
- Lots of VMs
- Huge growth in cloud infrastructure companies
- Migration off of traditional data centers
- AWS dominates
- Linux VMs running Apache/Nginx, Ruby/Python/Java/JS middleware, MySQL/Postgres/NoSQL databases
- Software development on proprietary workstations
- Common FOSS services become proprietary services behind API.
A Patchy Server
- Linux dismissed as toy by UNIXes
- Apache web server puts Linux/FOSS in the data center
- Virtual host feature = more than one website per web server!
- Cross-platform = Linux + Apache on commodity x86 hardware
- LAMP stacks replace traditional Sun/Oracle stacks
- Upload Perl/PHP code to CGI server, executes on demand
- Three $5k x86 Linux MySQL/Postgres servers instead of one $100k+ Sun/Oracle
- Starts the trend that ultimately replaces proprietary UNIX
- Linux/FOSS wins the UNIX wars.
LAMPBDA
- "Serverless" = proprietary CGI
- Further separation between developer and Linux/FOSS services
- Ultimate goal is working only w/ APIs
- Harder to leave the platform
- Is Linux/FOSS behind the APIs?
The Cloud is Just Another Sun
- Cloud is largest proprietary OS on the planet
- Today's devs + admin get minimal Linux/FOSS exposure
- Devs + admin have same job: API glue
- Vendor lock-in is expected, accepted
- Is your Cloud too big to fail?
- What happens if one Cloud wins?
- Would protocols need to stay open?
- If Linux VMs, FOSS services were replaced, who would notice?
- What do "we" do?
Why did Linux/FOSS Win?
- Sun's dominance led to complacency + arrogance
- Innovation slowed, in particular for UI
- More FOSS developers than Sun engineers
- Linux/FOSS innovations outpaced the rest
- Cross-platform compatibility made hardware a commodity
- Sun ultimately forced to x86 platform, opening software
- By then it was too late.
But what do we do?
- Recognize proprietary code when you (don't) see it
- Resist proprietary services
- Educate on vendor lock-in
- Our openness and compatibility is our advantage
- Share your innovations
- What is the next LAMP?
Thank You
Additional Resources