Collaboration has become a stronger central theme in the open-source world. Whereas collaboration used to mean simply sharing code and moving on, it now means sharing experiences around operations and accessing infrastructure as code or accessing infrastructure programmatically, explained Mark Baker (pictured), field product manager at Canonical Ltd, a privately held computer software company using OpenStack technology.

The benefits of this open-source information allow companies like Canonical to use OpenStack to fix problems quickly and implement better changes in a more timely fashion. On top of that, the nature of open source allows Canonical to understand how customers want to be able to use different technologies together.

“Ensuring that we’re able to deliver that as a standalone product is required,” Baker said. “But, also, as solutions together that are fully integrated, fully supportable, and they’re going to deliver the capability that the customer needs.”

Baker spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host John Troyer (@jtroyer), chief reckoner at TechReckoning, at OpenStack Summit in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They discussed the benefits of open-source technology and how Canonical is using those benefits to create better services for its clients. (* Disclosure below.)

A managed service

After noticing a lack of skills within the OpenStack community, Canonical created a fully managed OpenStack service. “We saw a lot of companies interested in deploying OpenStack, but they couldn’t find the talent or the people with the experience of deploying a managing OpenStack,” Baker explained.

Therefore, the company created a stop-gap service that is handed back to the owner once they’re comfortable operating it alone.

“The customers know that they have the reassurance that they can take it back, control and house. They can operate it themselves, and they can manage their own environment; they become self-sufficient, but they’re not doing that from day one. We’re holding their hand, and taking them along that path,” Baker concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of OpenStack Summit. (* Disclosure: Canonical Ltd. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Canonical nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE