INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Tencent, the $500-billion Chinese internet giant, is increasing its focus on open source after it became a platinum member of the Linux
Foundation.
The company has long been associated with the foundation and Linux generally, it is a founding member ofthe Linux Foundation
deep learning program that launched earlier this year, and now as a platinum member (the highest tier) it will take a board of directors
seat and work more closely with the organization
That works two ways, with Tencent pledging to offer &further support and resources& to foundation projects and communities, while the
Chinese firm itself will also tap into the foundation expertise and experience.
Along those lines, the company said it will contributeits
open source microservices project called TARS and an open source name service project (Tseer) to The Linux Foundation
It added that an open source AI project — Angel — will be contributed to the deep learning foundation.
&We are honored to be a Platinum
member of The Linux Foundation
Open source is core Tencent technical strategy,& Liu Xin, general manager of Tencent Mobile Internet Group said in a statement.
Other
platinum members include Cisco, Huawei, Microsoft, ATT, Samsung and IBM.
Earlier this year, Tencent joined another open source industry body
—the Open Compute Project (OCP) community — as part of a push for open source in the hardware space.
Tencent chief rival Alibaba also
maintains a large presence in the open source community.
Alibaba is a gold member since last year, but more than that it has invested
resources into projects directly as part of a push for its cloud computing service Alicloud
The Chinese firm led a $27 million investment in MariaDB, which became its first cloud investment outside of China
At home, its Alicloud-focused deals haveincluded investments in cloud storage provider Qiniu and big data firm Dt Dream.
