DEVOPSdigest

Chef announced a commitment to develop all of its software as open source under the Apache 2.0 license.

The company also announced the introduction of a new commercial distribution, Chef Enterprise Automation Stack, built from the same open source code, which it will develop, distribute, license, warrant, indemnify and support with its industry-leading automation and DevOps expertise. Chef welcomes any use of its open source projects for any purpose (in alignment with the four freedoms of FOSS) and welcomes future contributions. These new developments will streamline procurement, deployment and use of Chef products including Chef Infra (formerly Chef), Chef InSpec, Chef Habitat, Chef Automate and Chef Workstation.

“Moving all of our code to open source stays true to the philosophy that Chef was founded on, that a community of collaborators with the ongoing ability to create software for their shared purpose is good for all,” said Adam Jacob, Co-Founder and Board Member of Chef. “The value of that collaboration lies in the software and everyone should have access to make what they want from it.”

“Vendor-driven development and distribution models that most closely align with FOSS principles, which the open source community holds as its highest standard, will always find the greatest levels of acceptance and success,” said Holger Mueller, Vice-president and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. ”Drawing clear lines between open source and commercial offerings, while ensuring that both are exactly the same, serves both vendors’ and their users’ most pressing need

Chef Enterprise Automation Stack will unify previously distinct solutions -- Chef Automate, Chef Infra, Chef InSpec, Chef Habitat and Chef Workstation -- to enable a seamless transition from establishing compliance through application automation. By expressing infrastructure, security policies and application lifecycle as code, enterprise application teams can modernize how every application is delivered throughout its lifecycle. With the Chef Enterprise Automation Stack, enterprises gain velocity, repeatability and security in the face of ever-increasing complexity.

“The future of high-performing, agile enterprises is collaboration through code,” said Corey Scobie, SVP of Product and Engineering at Chef. “We are living that philosophy by making 100 percent of Chef software available as open source. The introduction of the Chef Enterprise Automation Stack builds on this, aligning our business model with our customers’ stated needs through Chef software distribution, services, assurances and direct engagement. Moving forward, the best, fastest, most reliable way to get Chef products and content will be through our commercial distributions.”

Chef Enterprise Automation Stack enables users to manage heterogeneous, complex environments and applications. It eliminates the need to re-write applications for the cloud and enables comprehensive portability across any public or private platforms or services. It also helps ensure security and compliance across the organization, providing a secure foundation for application deployment along with ongoing assurance that compliance requirements are being met.

“Chef is fully committed to enabling organizations to eliminate friction across the lifecycle of all of their applications, ensuring that, whether they build their solutions from our open source code or license our commercial distribution, they can benefit from collaboration as code,” said Barry Crist, CEO of Chef. “Chef Enterprise Automation Stack lets teams establish and maintain a consistent path to production for any application, in order to increase velocity and improve efficiency, so deployment and updates of mission-critical software become easier, move faster and work flawlessly.”