The world of open source software-defined networking (SDN) has gained the support of a VMware (VMW) veteran. Nicolas Jacques, a former executive at the virtualization giant, has taken on a new role as executive director of the Linux Foundation's OpenDaylight project.

OpenDaylight's goal is to advance open source SDN and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) software in a way that will promote innovation and collaboration across the open source ecosystem.  Jacques's appointment as the project's new director, according to the Linux Foundation, will advance the initiative's "developer-driven" mission.

Jacques formerly worked at VMware, where he helped develop and bring to market the company's core virtualization products.  He was also heavily involved in cloud computing initiatives at VMware. At OpenDaylight, he'll answer to the project's board of directors.

Jacques's appointment reflects the Linux Foundation's vision of SDN as a key component of the future of open source networking, cloud and virtualization solutions.  Jacques described SDN in a statement as the "last mile for virtualization," adding that "open source software and collaborative development is going to get us there."

In many ways, what Jacques and the Linux Foundation hope to use OpenDaylight to do for SDN what open source technologies like OpenStack and Hadoop have done for the cloud and Big Data. They want to create a widely used open source SDN solution that will allow developers, vendors and ISVs across the open source world to continue to innovate without relying on proprietary solutions for the rapidly evolving SDN niche.

For now, OpenDaylight remains in heavy development. The first release of its platform, called Hydrogen, will appear next month, December 2013.