Open Stack

OpenStack Foundation 2012 End-of-Year Update

The advent of 2013 warrants a quick reflection upon the accomplishments of 2012.  Amazing progress has been made in such a short time. 

Through a lot of diligent effort over the past year, the OpenStack Foundation officially launched on the 19th of September, 2012.The Board of Directors met for the first time on the 28th of August 2012.  From that first meeting the Board has focused on setting up the initial functions of the Foundation utilizing a series of Board meetings, work groups and committees. 

Asset committee
The board immediately created a short-term committee to transition the OpenStack assets from Rackspace to the Foundation.  The primary assets were the OpenStack trademark and domain names.
Through the propitious efforts of Rackspace and the committee members the OpenStack Foundation now provides a permanent legal home for the project assets. 

Finance Committee/Budget
One of the first duties of the Board was to setup the fiduciary controls, monetary duties and procedures.   This effort, led by the Foundation Leadership team, also included the creation of a Board finance committee. This ongoing committee reviews the financial affairs of the Foundation. Using this information, it is the committee’s duty to make appropriate recommendations to the Board and the Executive Director regarding financial matters.

With the financial controls in place the Board then proceeded to develop budgets suited to support the mission of the Foundation, funding the activities of the community through three defined categories, Community Development, Infrastructure, and Administrative (G&A).   

"Community Development" includes activities such as the twice-annual OpenStack Summits, supporting regional events (such as the recent OpenStack Days in London, India, and Paris), industry trade shows, PR & Analyst Relations, and the development of educational content to help drive OpenStack adoption.

"Community Infrastructure" includes the investments in people and systems to facilitate the software development process, such as Infrastructure Engineers and CI systems.  

The great news is the Board approved not only a budget for 2012 but also 2013. The net income (income minus expenses) will be used to build up the financial reserves of the Foundation, to ensure its long-term viability. (Apologies up front if the table comes across mis-aligned - even though my email client tells me I'm using a mono font I'm not believing it.)

INCOME..............Q42012 (Calendar 2012)......FY2013 (Calendar 2013)
Members.and.Sponsors.....$1,446,300.00......$5,948,000.00
Events...................................................$0......$1,950,000.00
Total.Income......................$1,446,300.00......$7,898,000.00

EXPENSES
G&A......................................$396,000.00......$1,109,000.00
Community Development.....$452,000.00......$5,060,000.00
Community Infrastructure.....$123,000.00........$663,000.00
Total Expenses......................$971,000.00......$6,832,000.00

NET.INCOME..........................$475,300.00......$1,066,000.00


With budgets in place progress accelerated with the appointment of the Executive Director, the Chief Operating Officer, hiring of staff, and the approval of additional Gold members and sponsors.  Goals and metrics for the Executive Director were developed and managed through a Board compensation committee.  With leadership and controls in place the Foundation was better enabled to focus on the community. 

The OpenStack community is made up of many people with a wide range of differing talents, contributions and goals.  One of the ways the community is beginning to engage those talents is through several new committees, including:

User Committee
The User Committee is specifically outlined within the bylaws to provide user advocacy into the OpenStack project.  The committee is currently in the process of developing ideas on what they will tackle first and defining th
eir charter.

Legal Affairs Advisory Committee
This committee is not counsel to the Foundation but rather advisers on legal policy issues.  From initial meetings at the Grizzly summit, this committee has met several times discussing IP protection industry trends.

Training Work Group
The Foundation has made education a top priority for 2013, to lower barriers to adoption, create more OpenStack experts, and grow the community.  There are a large number of OpenStack related job openings worldwide, indicating a serious knowledge gap, which training can help close. Training is one of the best opportunities to grow the community, drive adoption, and create new fans all over the globe. The group’s efforts are to develop a new program, administered by the Foundation, consistent with the Foundation’s mission to “protect, empower, and promote” OpenStack. The program should aim to make the largest impact possible, within the resource constraints of the Foundation, so that we can spread OpenStack knowledge far and wide while continuing to protect the brand.

Incubator Process Update Committee
One of the most recent efforts to get underway is the committee working to update the Incubator process to better align with the bylaws and mission of the OpenStack Foundation. It is important to update the current Incubator process to enable and promote efforts within the community, while facilitating a mechanism for the Technical Committee and Board to work together for the proper advancement of OpenStack technologies. 

2013 Elections
The election process has been updated for 2013 (Individual and Gold) and elections are now underway. Be sure to participate and vote!

Looking Forward to 2013
We have an extremely active Board and community with unparalleled momentum going into 2013. Once the elections are complete, the Board will meet to refine the goals and objectives of the Foundation for 2013 with a focus on the OpenStack mission, planning and business operations. As a board we are doing our best to enable the community so that you can rapidly move forward with developing world changing cloud software.

We wish to congratulate and thank all of you for your contributions and accomplishments past and future, and are pleased to extend our warmest wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year.


Alan Clark
OpenStack Board Chair

Jonathan Bryce
OpenStack Executive Director


9Jan2013