This month AMD adds to its support of key Open Source Software communities by becoming a Gold Level Sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). AMD has been actively supporting the Linux®, GCC, Xen, and KVM communities for the last several years, contributing code and optimizations to help take advantage of the innovative hardware features in our CPU and GPU technologies. We’re expanding that effort to encompass technologies further up the software stack, namely the open source middleware and applications that help form the foundation of cloud computing and “big data” problem solving.

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) was founded in 1999 to provide a foundation for open, collaborative software development projects by supplying hardware, communication, and business infrastructure. Best known for its ubiquitous web server software, the ASF is also home to a diverse set of projects ranging from Java Servlets (TomCat), to scripting languages (Perl) and as far afield as machine learning (Mahout). Its committers, whether individuals or representatives of leading corporations, adhere to a rigorous and active meritocracy that simultaneously drive innovation and software quality.

What really draws me to the ASF are the people that are contributing. These are the developers living at the very edge of scale-out computing, which is at the heart and soul of cloud computing technology. They are people who are navigating terabyte (petabyte?) datasets daily, and trying to make sure you can view online content without marking the passage of time with an hourglass (virtual or otherwise). The code that they generate is imbued with the “muscle memory” of problems solved almost as quickly as they are encountered.

Our interest in supporting the ASF? It’s simple: help the folks that are taking computing and communications to the next level. Supporting open source communities like the ASF is a commitment to innovation, and helps ensure that people who design, use and benefit from technology have the choice of taking many paths to realizing their vision.

AMD’s sponsorship will support the administration of the ASF community’s server facilities and will include AMD Opteron™ 6000 and 4000 series platforms for the committers to develop, test and play with. We are anxious to get our hardware technology into the hands of developers who can take it to new levels of functionality.

We welcome your reaction and feedback on AMD’s involvement in the ASF. Tell us what you think.

John Fritz is a Developer Relations Director at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.