Thought Leadership

Chip Childers on Open Source as Integral to VMware Innovation Engine

Open source communities drive the growth of new innovations, from idea to implementation. Ecosystems form around successful projects, moving the entire industry forward. While open source has been a part of the technological landscape for many years now, we have reached new heights of importance and impact. Everywhere we look, open source technologies have shaped our world. This is especially true in the world of enterprise technology.

Chip Childers, Vice President and Chief Open Source Officer, directs VMware’s open source compliance, strategy and innovation efforts. Fostering collaboration within the company and the broader tech community is a pillar upon which VMware OSPO stands.

Coinciding with the celebration of VMware’s 25 years of innovation, Chip joined SDxCentral’s Dan Meyer on the 7 Layers podcast to discuss VMware’s commitment to open source and the community to deliver software that’s secure, scalable and resilient.

Tune in to learn how VMware’s OSPO supports three main areas:

  1. Compliance programs: To ensure compliance, VMware’s OSPO collaborates with development teams and the security organization to establish best practices to reduce risk from vulnerabilities. License compliance and contribution approvals are also key tasks.
  2. Community strategy: VMware OSPO is the link that connects the entire company with open source communities. We strive to support authentic, transparent and pragmatic communication, while ensuring that larger-scale engagements are aimed directly at helping our customers be more competitive and innovative.
  3. Innovation funnel: Ahead of VMware project team needs, the OSPO contributes to upstream projects, feeding valuable market insights back into the business and helping create the technologies and standards that our product teams can build on top of.

… and much more about what the future holds for VMware’s involvement in MLOps and securing our software supply chains.

“Open source is embedded throughout VMware. We’re here to help all the product teams with the best practices and take advantage of investments in open source communities and partnerships,” Chip said in the podcast. “We get to be a presence in securing the industry software supply chain that is making a very material impact at the industry at large. Our engineers gravitate towards white spaces with minimal investment or challenge to improve the supply chain.”

Stay tuned to the Open Source Blog and follow us on Twitter for more deep dives into the world of open source contributing.