EMC releases first open source offering

EMC has finally taken the plunge into open source waters by offering a version of its ViPR storage controller for community development.

Called Project CoprHD, the open version of ViPR is set to be licensed under Mozilla Public License 2.0, and the source code will be made available on GitHub next month.

It will offer all the storage automation and control capabilities of ViPR Controller, which EMC will continue to sell commercially bundled with service and support.

ViPR Controller combines multiple storage systems from various vendors into a single virtual pool, and automates the provisioning of data capacity to applications.

EMC is seeking to develop an ecosystem around ViPR - it is encouraging all storage vendors to contribute to the open source project.

The move represents EMC's first foray into open source for an existing commercial product.

The company has been slower off the mark to embrace open source than rivals like IBM, HP, and Cisco, despite helping to found Pivotal with VMWare as a spinoff company backing the open-source Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service. 

EMC has also shown interest in open source cloud framework OpenStack by buying Cloudscaling, an OpenStack pioneer, last year.