The LF Edge community comprises a diverse set of member companies and people that represent the IoT, Enterprise, Cloud and Telco Edge. The Member Spotlight blog series highlights these members and how they are contributing to and leveraging open source edge solutions. Today, we sit down with Jim Xu, Principal Engineer at Zenlayer, to discuss the importance of open source, collaborating with industry leaders in edge computing, their contributions to Akraino and the impact of being a part of the LF Edge ecosystem.
Can you tell us a little about your organization?
Zenlayer is an edge cloud service provider and global company headquartered in Los Angeles, Shanghai, Singapore, and Mumbai. Businesses utilize Zenlayer’s platform to deploy applications closer to the users and improve their digital experience. Zenlayer offers edge compute, software defined networking, and application delivery services in more than 180 locations on six continents.
Why is your organization adopting an open source approach?
Zenlayer has always relied on open source solutions. We strongly believe that open source is the right ecosystem for the edge cloud industry to grow. We connect infrastructure all over the globe. If each data center and platform integrate open-source software, it is much easier to integrate networks and make literal connections compared to a milieu of proprietary systems. Some of the open source projects we benefit from and support are Akraino Blue Prints, ODL, Kubernetes, OpenNess, DPDK, Linux, mySQL, and more.
Why did you join LF Edge and what sort of impact do you think LF Edge has on the edge, networking, and IoT industries?
We are a startup company in the edge cloud industry. LF Edge is one of the best open-source organizations both advocating for and building open edge platforms. The edge cloud space is developing rapidly, with continuous improvements in cloud technology, edge infrastructure, disaggregated compute, and storage options. Both impact and complexity go far beyond just cloud service providers, device vendors, or even a single traditional industry. LF Edge has helped build a community of people and companies from across industries, advocating for an open climate to make the edge accessible to as many users as possible.
What do you see as the top benefits of being part of the LF Edge community?
Our company has been a member of the LF Edge community for over a year now. Despite the difficulties presented by COVID-19, we have been able to enjoy being part of the Edge community. We interacted with people from a broad spectrum of industries and technology areas and learned some exciting use cases from the LF Edge community. This has helped us build a solid foundation for Zenlayer’s edge cloud services.
What sort of contributions has your team made to the community, ecosystem through LF Edge participation?
We are proud to be part of the Edge Cloud community. Zenlayer is leading the Upstream subcommittee within Akraino and has invited multiple external communities such as ONF CORD, CNTT, TIP OCN, O-RAN and TARS to share our common interest in building the edge. We also contributed to the upstream requirement and reviews for Akraino releases.
What do you think sets LF Edge apart from other industry alliances?
LF Edge has a clear focus on edge cloud and a very healthy and strong governing board to ensure unbiased technological drive toward open systems.
How will LF Edge help your business?
We hope LF Edge will continue to empower rapid customer innovation during the drive to edge cloud for video streaming, gaming, enterprise applications, IoT, and more. As a member of a fast-growing community, we also look forward to more interactions via conferences and social events (digital or in person as is safe) so we can continue to get to know and better understand each other’s needs and how we can help solve them.
What advice would you give to someone considering joining LF Edge?
LF Edge is a unique community pushing for the best future for edge cloud. The group brings together driven people, a collaborative culture, and fast momentum. What you put in you receive back tenfold. Anyone interested in the future of the edge should consider joining, even if they do not yet know much about open source and its benefits. The community will value their inputs and be happy to teach or collaborate in return.
To find out more about LF Edge members or how to join, click here. To learn more about Akraino, click here. Additionally, if you have questions or comments, visit the LF Edge Slack Channel and share your thoughts in the #community or #akraino-tsc channels.
