June 14th, 2006
Open source creates U.S. manufacturing jobs
Open Source Storage has just opened a 32,000 square foot manufacturing plant. In Sunnyvale. California. On the old Atari campus.
CEO Eren Niazi said the fully-automated facility can turn out 1,000 systems a day. They can do reference designs, and turn around a customer in days instead of weeks. Open source software is used for the systems’ internals, and most wind up being loaded with LAMP stacks, used as enterprise Web servers.
The speedy delivery, which enterprise customers need, is why this plant is in Sunnyvale. "We’re doing rapid deployment," he said. "Our customers can’t wait for this stuff to come from overseas."
While former VA Linux head Larry Augustin blamed the dot-bomb for VA Linux’ failed move to open source hardware Niazi, who has hired some of Augustin’s old team, said outsourcing may have also had a role to play. "They lost some control when they outsourced. We don’t outsource our service."
There’s another difference between the old VA and OSS. "We’re not VC backed. We’re growing without venture capital. We’ve been profitable for five years without it." And there’s no reason to go public, either.
Let’s see. Open source. Jobs in the USA. No need for capital. Did you just read that right?
You did.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Linux and Open Source via Email alerts or RSS.
