The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the well-known and highly influential all-volunteer open source software development non-profit, has announced that Apache Libcloud is out of incubation and ready to help cloud ISVs and cloud service providers avoid platform lock-in.

Libcloud is exactly what it says on the tin: an open source Python library, providing a vendor-neutral way to access cloud provider APIs. Code once, and Libcloud’s back-end drivers can deploy on any of a number of popular cloud platforms, including Amazon EC2, GoGrid, Linode and Rackspace Cloud, according to the press release.

It’s been in development since November 2009, when Libcloud originated with cloud management and monitoring company (and later Rackspace acquisition) CloudKick. Later, after garnering some community and developer support, it was able to add support for features such as load balancing and cloud storage. And with the announcement that it’s now a Top-Level Project (TLP), it gets a management committee and full releases.

Now, ASF’s Libcloud team wants to focus on getting it compatible with a broader range of cloud service providers. From where I’m sitting, this proves two things: With this many vendors pushing against it, cloud lock-in may soon be a thing of the past. And open source is really taking the lead in cloud innovation.

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