Major players within the technology sector are embracing open source in hopes of driving innovation in the industry.

Mauri Whalen, vice president in the Software and Services Group and director of core system software in the Open Source Technology Center at Intel Corporation, met up with Jeff Frick on theCUBE with SiliconANGLE’s media team, at LinuxCon 2015 to talk about open source and how it drives innovation.

A “Kernel” of opportunity

Intel claims to be the number one contributor to the Linux Kernel, and the company’s commitment to open source is a strategic decision. Whalen explained, “Once Intel pushes to the “Kernel”, the code is available for people to take and modify for their own use.” This provides developers the code and opportunity to take the Kernel and make product out of it.

Whalen continued by saying, “One of the things people really need to know about open source is how well it scales. Pushing things to the Kernel once provides scale to 100s of millions of people.”

By giving, you receive

So what does Intel get out of this? Whalen feels that if someone is going to do something innovative, the whole community benefits. She considers this essential because, “If you are not out collaborating in in the open, innovation happens without you.”

She points to containers and how, through open source initiatives, a new use evolved. “Now clear containers are using virtualization to provide security you don’t get with normal container usage,” said Whalen.

Intel is collaborating on open source projects that will benefit many industries and enterprises. Whalen mentions the company’s collaboration with Rackspace, Intel Cloud for All. The hope is that this project will lead to tens of thousands of new cloud deployments.

She also talks about Intel’s investment in Open Stack. The company is working on enterprise readiness and collaborating with Telco industry users of the platform.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of LinuxCon 2015.

Photo by SiliconANGLE