Networking makes the modern connected world possible. Yet as networking has become more important, new technologies must rise to shoulder the burden. Businesses at all levels are discovering that open-source networking can provide the solutions they need.

“I can confidently say that open-source networking, not just networking but open-source networking, is now mainstream,” said Arpit Joshipura (pictured), general manager of networking and orchestration at The Linux Foundation.

Joshipura spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this week’s Open Source Summit in Los Angeles. They discussed discussed open-source networking and the Open Network Automation Platform, or ONAP. (* Disclosure below.)

The steady march of open-source technology

Open-source software has been steadily creeping into the business world over the past few years. These days, people expect information technology systems to involve open-source somewhere. Networking, in particular, has seen a surge in open-source adoption, and telcos, carriers and enterprise all rely on open-source networking, Joshipura explained.

The reason for this sudden popularity is that new technologies such as those concerning 5G and the Internet of Things need automated networks. Because of this fact, major companies are pushing the adoption of new tools and systems, and open-source offers the necessary solutions.

One of those solutions revolves around ONAP, which launched early in 2017 as a program designed to bring several open-source projects, and their communities, together under one banner. “If you count up all the [telco] subscribers that are being influenced by ONAP, they come out at 55 percent of four-and-a-half billion subscribers,” Joshipura said.

The change from proprietary to open-source technology has come rather quickly. Four years ago, networking was mostly proprietary. Then, open-source solutions started to mature, and oversight organizations like The Linux Foundation then brought those solutions together into whole systems, Joshipura explained.

“What ONAP and The Linux Foundation are intending to do … is bring all the components into a system solution that’s easy to deploy,” Joshipura concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Open Source Summit 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Open Source Summit 2017. Neither The Linux Foundation nor Red Hat Inc. have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE