Cloud Computing Pioneer: Rich Wolski

Rich Wolski

Rich Wolski is the co-founder and CTO of Eucalyptus Systems who decided that Amazon's public cloud APIs were so important that they should have open source code counterparts -- even if Amazon Web Services was against it.

He has been criticized on several fronts. One, his approach to cloud computing was too narrow -- it was based only on Amazon's example and initiative. Another: if Amazon wished to make its APIs open source, it could do so; if it didn't, it could make life difficult for an open source project that was doing so.

Wolski ignored the critics and pushed ahead both with his open source code leadership and Eucalyptus Systems, which makes a stack of software for building private clouds with Amazon EC2 compatibility. Amazon executives, for years unresponsive to Eucalyptus' entreaties to join the open source project, announced in late May that Amazon would partner with Eucalyptus Systems as a provider of private cloud APIs. It was, finally, a blessing on Wolski's initiative.

Also a computer science professor, Wolski is a person of strong convictions who believes the world will convert to a new style of computing -- and that Eucalyptus is destined to play a role in the conversion. Source: Information Week