The OpenStack Foundation Board of Directors met for a two hour conference call on Tuesday. The usual disclaimer applies - this my informal recollection of the meeting. It’s not an official record. Jonathan Bryce has posted an official summary of the meeting.
Interoperability Working Group Update
After the usual formalities of a roll call and approving the previous meeting minutes, the board heard from Egle Sigler, Mark Voelker, and Chris Hoge of the Interoperability Working Group.
The topics of the discussion are laid out in the working group's board report with Egle covering the upcoming 2017.08 guideline, Mark covering the proposal for extension programs, and Chris covering version 2.0 of the interop schema.
The extension programs proposal resulted in the most discussion. Mark described how the proposal explains how the OpenStack Powered trademark programs work today, the history of those programs, and how the additional programs would work.
The first type of program is a "vertical" program - examples given include "OpenStack Powered for NFV" or "OpenStack Powered for Containers". These would add requirements for additional capabilities specific to these use cases, provided those capabilities are already widely deployed in the context of those use cases.
The second type of program is an "add-on" program - for example, "OpenStack Powered DNS". This would require capabilities specific to that service, and ensure interoperability between implementations of a given service. It is anticipated that individual project teams would be responsible for definining the interop requirements.
Anni asked how these programs would relate to the idea of "constellations" as a way of describing OpenStack components, but the working group didn't see any immediate overlap with that idea.
I raised a concern that if obscure projects are free to define add-on programs of their own, it could dilute the value of the OpenStack Powered programs overall. However, it was clarified that, while the individual project teams could define interop requirements, each individual new program would require board approval.
Anni also raised a concern that vertical programs should not be exclusive - i.e. it should be possible for a single product to qualify for all vertical programs at once, so these programs need to not have conflicting requirements. The working group agreed with this, and explained that they had already taken this feedback into account.
Finally, the working group explained that their goal is for the board to approve this framework at our Fall meeting.
Membership Changes
The last topic for the board to consider was some membership changes and applications. Put simply, Canonical wished to move from being a Platinum member to being a Gold member, and Ericsson wished to apply for Canonical's Platinum member slot.
Chris Price presented Ericsson's case for Platinum membership. Interestingly, this was the second time that Ericsson had applied for Platinum membership in the past year. The previous time, at the March 9 board meeting, Ericsson and Huawei applied for the slot left vacant by HPE. Huawei was successful with their application that time around.
Chris explained Ericsson's vision for OpenStack, and how they plan to continue developing and driving forward the OpenStack ecosystem. He also explained Ericsson's role in working with adjacent communities like OpenDaylight and OPNFV, as well as their role in related standard's bodies.
Next up, Mark Baker described how Canonical felt that with several "industry giants" looking to take up Platinum membership, that the right thing for a smaller entity like Canonical to do from a community perspective, was to take a step back and allow others with greater resources to take their Platinum member slot. However, he also emphasized how OpenStack remains at the core of Canonical's business.
After some brief questions, the board went into executive session and, on return, both applications were approved.
Next Meeting
The board's next meeting is a 2 hour conference call on Tuesday, August 22. Our next in-person meeting will be in Denver on Sunday, September 10.