As part of my role as a principal communication strategist at an enterprise software company with an open source development model, I publish a regular update about open source community, market, and industry trends for product marketers, managers, and other influencers. Here are five of my and their favorite articles from that update.
COBOL continues to be a programming language worth learning
Prompted by the pandemic, IBM rolled out a brand new course designed both for beginners and professionals requiring a COBOL refresher. It has also launched an initiative designed to connect COBOL programmers with potential employers.
Identifying a downturn in COBOL expertise, Micro Focus collaborated with businesses and universities to establish the COBOL Academic Program, which provides free access to the latest teaching tools.
“Think back 20 years - the amount of money and resources put into reducing the impact of Y2K should give you an idea as to the herculean task of replacing the dependency on COBOL,” he said.
The impact: Take these three courses and what you get is a lifetime of stable employment.
What Does the Future Hold for Edge Computing?
5G is one of the drivers for edge computing, as it allows for increased numbers of data sources or processing points that can be interconnected, implying an exponential increase in the volume of data to be processed. This can quickly become too much for existing “sites to cloud” connections and requires data processing much closer to the source. 5G also allows for much lower latencies, a key component to some new applications and another factor in making processing power available closer to where it is consumed or generated.
The impact: As our network bandwidth expands, so will our capacity to collect and analyze data. Keep an eye on the technology that is evolving in this space.
In Cloud Computing, Open Source Becomes Big Business
“The best, most flexible software gets built in the open source community,” said Gracely. “If I have a common problem, we can bring all our engineering talents together and solve it at a lower cost to everyone. If you have a unique aspect to your problem, you can tweak the code to your need, and now others with your need can use it.”
The impact: Governmental participation in that community means that we as taxpayers have a stake in the development of "the best, most flexible software" and a reasonable expectation to benefit from it.
A Docker-compatible release comes to Podman 2.0
This new API is designed to have two sets of methods. One set of methods are available at the root endpoint and compatible with the Docker API. The other set of methods are available at the /libpod path.
The impact: Podman adopting a Docker-compatible API means it is easier than ever to use both technologies. If you prefer to go daemonless, podman is a good choice. It is also a great way to interact with containers without the need for root access.
Cloud Native Computing Foundation Continues Steady Growth with 30 New Members
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which builds sustainable ecosystems for cloud native software, today announced that 30 new members and end user supporters have joined the foundation, bringing total membership to 570 organizations.
The impact: The CNFC continues to be the place where organizations, along with open source contributors, build upon the growing landscape of technology.
I hope you enjoyed this list and come back next week for more open source community, market, and industry trends.
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