Microsoft Builds New Azure Cloud OS on Linux and Open Hardware
Microsoft (MSFT) made headlines in the open source world last week by announcing that it has built a Linux-based switch operating system for the Azure cloud. No, Microsoft is not going to be selling Linux anytime soon—or, probably, ever. But the move does showcase Redmond's interest in open source for the data center.
Microsoft (MSFT) made headlines in the open source world last week by announcing that it has built a Linux-based switch operating system for the Azure cloud. No, Microsoft is not going to be selling Linux anytime soon—or, probably, ever. But the move does showcase Redmond's interest in open source for the data center.
The new operating system, called Azure Cloud Switch (ACS), "is a cross-platform modular operating system for data center networking built on Linux," according to Microsoft. ACS will run on data center switches—which, for the uninitiated, are devices in server rooms that route and control traffic between devices.
Microsoft developed ACS using the Swich Abstraction Interface, or SAI, from the Open Compute Project, a collaborative industry initiative that Facebook launched in 2011 to create open hardware designs for data centers. Microsoft helped to build SAI, an API based on C that is designed for programming network switches.
It's (Not) the End of the World as We Know It
The ACS news prompted reports in the IT press that Microsoft had announced "its own Linux OS" or "developed its own Linux."
Alas, headlines like those are sensationalist, to say the least.
Yes, ACS is a Linux-based operating system designed by Microsoft. But it was created for in-house use with a very specific purpose.
ACS is a far, far cry from a Linux-based general-purpose operating system that Microsoft intends to sell. That would be radically interesting news. Linux-based software running on network switches inside Microsoft's data centers is not.
As far as open source advocacy goes, ACS is no more remarkable than, say, discovering that wireless routers inside Microsoft's offices run Linux-based firmware—which there's a good chance they do, since a lot of wireless routers operate using some form of Linux.
All the same, ACS does highlight how Microsoft is incorporating both open source software and open hardware into its expanding cloud business. Open source is driving the company's effort to build more scalable and flexible cloud infrastructure, which could matter for its competitors in the cloud space.
