Upstream Investment Opportunities

Many companies in the OpenStack community are looking to invest in upstream development of OpenStack, for many reasons: to build expertise within the organisation; to minimise the cost of downstream maintenance by addressing issues at the source; to drive insights gained from serving their customers into the upstream design; to mitigate business risks presented by a tragedy of the commons; or just to support the community. One study has shown that companies that contribute to Open Source projects are able to capture up to twice as much value from their use of the software than those who do not contribute are.[1] However, OpenStack is a large project and figuring out where best to invest to derive business value can seem daunting, especially for those new to the community.

This page presents a curated set of suggested investment areas based on the current opportunities available in the community, along with contact points for each who can help you get started. The list is in no particular order - which opportunity is the best fit depends on the nature of your business. In general, contributors to the community need not be solely devoted to upstream development, but we have found that long-term commitments generate the most value for both the project and the sponsoring organisation.

Current Investment Opportunities

Previous Investment Opportunities

Note

The “Investment Opportunities” process was introduced in 2019. The entries before (2018) are following our “Help Most Wanted list” format, which does not highlight business opportunities.

Inclusion Criteria

Only entries approved in the current calendar year are shown, but entries from previous years may be reproposed if they are still relevant. Each item should provide a business case that potential sponsors can use to identify whether the opportunity is relevant to them, a description of the kind of experience needed as well as the mentoring opportunities the community is able to provide, and at least one point of contact for anyone interested in contributing.

Footnotes