Leading Cloud service interoperability library used by more than 50 providers, including Amazon Web Services, Apache CloudStack, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, and VMware.
Forest Hill, MD —22 June 2016— The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 350 Open Source projects and initiatives, announced today the availability of Apache® Libcloud™ v1.0, the Cloud service interoperability library.
Created in 2009, Apache Libcloud enables developers to manage multiple providers’ Cloud services through a single, unified, and easy to use application program interface (API). Today, Apache Libcloud has benefitted from strong adoption in the Open Source community and the integrations into public Clouds spanning more than 50 providers including Amazon, Apache CloudStack, DigitalOcean, Google, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, and VMware.
"When we first formed Apache Libcloud, there were many failed attempts to create a standard API specification for Cloud providers," said Tomaž Muraus, Vice President of Apache Libcloud. "We decided to form an Open Source interoperability library as part of The Apache Software Foundation. Apache Libcloud 1.0 introduces powerful multi-Cloud abstraction not just for compute/Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), but also Platform-as-a-Service components such as DNS, Storage, Application Load balancing, Backup, and Container-as-a-Service."
Cloud providers first started with Virtual Machine hosting, or IaaS-enabling hosting of KVM, VMware or XenServer virtualized machines. Apache Libcloud abstracted away from the differences between platforms, and provided a single Python-API to collect data from multiple Cloud, manage environments and automate server deployments. As Cloud providers evolved to offer Platform services such as DNS, Load Balancing, Storage, and Backups, Apache Libcloud has flexibly adapted over the years to support new platforms and Clouds.
In v1.0, Apache Libcloud supports Container-as-a-Service (CaaS) providers, Amazon EC2 Container Service (ECS), Google Cloud Container Engine (GKE), and on-premise options Kubernetes and Docker. 
"Apache Libcloud provides a simple API abstraction to deploy Docker containers across both private and public Clouds," explained Muraus. "We have seen adoption from academic and non-profit organizations wanting to benefit from free or low-cost Clouds, but still maintaining compatibility for public Clouds for commercial adoption."
Apache Libcloud is also a popular choice with DevOps tools seeking to provide a simple multi-Cloud automation capability.
"Apache Libcloud has managed to create one of the most stable and usable APIs out there for managing Cloud environments, without it Cloud orchestration from SaltStack Cloud would have been nearly impossible to create," said Thomas Hatch, CTO of SaltStack. "I'm excited to spend more time incorporating this library into my projects!"
In addition, Cloud providers use Apache Libcloud as a library to service multi-Cloud integration and support direct integration into APIs. 
"We use Apache Libcloud as a pivotal tool for our clients to automate the Dimension Data Cloud as part of a multi-Cloud strategy," said Ettienne Reinecke, CTO of Dimension Data. 
"We would like to thank our hundreds of volunteers and contributors dedicating their time and energy to making Apache Libcloud reach this major milestone and serve our millions of users," added Muraus.
Learn more from members of the Apache Libcloud community on 
 - Podcast.__init__ http://pythonpodcast.com/apache-libcloud.html and 
 - FLOSS weekly https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly/episodes/373
Availability and Oversight
Apache Libcloud software is released under the Apache License v2.0 and is overseen by a self-selected team of active contributors to the project. A Project Management Committee (PMC) guides the Project's day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases. For downloads, documentation, and ways to become involved with Apache Libcloud, visit http://libcloud.apache.org/ and https://twitter.com/libcloud
About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
Established in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees more than 350 leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server --the world's most popular Web server software. Through the ASF's meritocratic process known as "The Apache Way," more than 550 individual Members and 5,300 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely available enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thousands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and the community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiatives, and ApacheCon, the Foundation's official user conference, trainings, and expo. The ASF is a US 501(c)(3) charitable organization, funded by individual donations and corporate sponsors including Alibaba Cloud Computing, ARM, Bloomberg, Budget Direct, Cerner, Cloudera, Comcast, Confluent, Facebook, Google, Hortonworks, HP, Huawei, IBM, InMotion Hosting, iSigma, LeaseWeb, Microsoft, OPDi, PhoenixNAP, Pivotal, Private Internet Access, Produban, Red Hat, Serenata Flowers, WANdisco, and Yahoo. For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/ and https://twitter.com/TheASF
© The Apache Software Foundation. "Apache", "Libcloud", "Apache Libcloud", and "ApacheCon" are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Apache Software Foundation in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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