Open Source Technologies

Next week, dozens of cloud evangelists and tech aficionados from Rackspace will touch down at the Portland Convention Center in Oregon for a series of game-changing talks and panels on all things OpenStack. This year’s summit is expected to lure a record crowd seeking insight on how to build and deploy OpenStack software, as well as how to continue to grow the energetic OpenStack community. Attendees can also learn more about OpenStack through content, workshops and design sessions.

Hustling to release a full suite of open cloud products built on OpenStack last year reduced our overall involvement in the OpenStack community. It also created some implementation specifics that were out of sync with common practices in other OpenStack implementations.

Want to beef up your resume and show the world that you’re on top of your OpenStack game? Want to do it for free? At OpenStack Summit Portland this month we’ll offer free Rackspace Certified Technician for OpenStack exams – a $200 value.

Academic and scientific research often involves the construction of mathematical and numerical models to solve scientific and engineering problems. Traditionally, these complex and intensive computational models have been implemented on super computers or high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.  These models are difficult to setup and operate, and can create a painful experience for researchers who often have to wait in a long line to use their university’s super computing infrastructure, whether it’s for a few hours or a few days.

A book in a week? Yes, a book in a week. It can be done! It’s called a book sprint, and it’s intense. As the documentation coordinator for OpenStack, I knew we’d find the right book to write with this technique. In February, it all came together thanks to generous funding from the OpenStack Foundation for $10,000 to fly the team into our Austin Rackspace location.

On Thursday March 14, 2013 the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet held an important hearing entitled “Abusive Patent Litigation: The Impact on American Innovation & Jobs, and Potential Solutions.” Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia summed up the patent troll problem perfectly in his prepared remarks:

EDITOR’S NOTE 03/21/2013: Please note that this deployment used Version 2.0 of the Rackspace Private Cloud Software. Rackspace is currently on Version 3.0, which installs from packages, rather than an ISO-based installation. Full instructions can be found here: http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/installing-rackspace-private-cloud-software.

Information and technology are disruptive. But data-driven disruption is what will ultimately break down the barriers of closed, inaccessible, unaccountable government. The OpenGov Foundation is a scrappy little tech non-profit working to open government and developing and deploying tools that help people participate in their government and hold it accountable.

Developing on the Rackspace Open Cloud is now easier with the new Rackspace provider driver in Vagrant 1.1!

This is a guest post written and contributed by Brad Montgomery, Co-Founder at Work For Pie, a Rackspace customer. Work for Pie allows software developers and technical content producers to create a showcase of their skills and their work.