The pace of innovation is accelerating. And while most tech businesses understand this, seeing it in motion is another thing entirely. The OpenStack Days: Silicon Valley 2016 conference in Mountain View, California, served as an example of technology in motion as it showcased the latest developments from the open-source and OpenStack communities.

To gain some insight from the conference, John Furrier (@furrier) and Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, sat down together at the end of the day. There they discussed innovation, the pace of change and new dynamics.

Change and innovation

Martin opened the conversation with a look at the community. She stated that we’re seeing the heart of innovation at OpenStack Days. The open-source community is not afraid of the Big Bad Wolves, she said.

Furrier pointed out one of the highlights of the show,including the velocity of change. In his opinion, businesses are facing a complete sea change of technical transformation. It’s a march toward fully digital companies. He felt that enterprise companies would be facing some tough choices to stay relevant.

A digital land grab

The discussion then shifted to the concept of the “Starbuck Developer,” with Furrier mentioning that the barriers to entry were so low a developer could go to a coffee shop, whip up an app, put it online and change lives.

“With that speed of innovation, the possibilities are endless,” Martin said.

However, Furrier also shared a worry of the open-source community: what would happen if venture capitalists got their claws into these startups. He called it a land grab. The concern was in preserving the value of open source; that is, contributing and giving back. A company taken over by VC money might not share their work.

Finally, he spoke about OpenStack’s success as a developer-driven organization. He described OpenStack as being on a buyer-led journey, one that might play out in a way that big vendors won’t like.

“That’s an interesting kind of dynamic,” Furrier said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the OpenStack Days: Silicon Valley 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE