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 Clardy, Co-Founder and Global Cloud Partners and Alliances at NetFoundry, to discuss the importance of open source, collaborating with industry leaders in edge computing and the impact of being a part of the LF Edge ecosystem.
Please tell us a little about your organization.
NetFoundry provides the leading zero trust networking platform offered as Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) to connect distributed applications, users, devices and locations through an optimized global fabric. This enables: solutions and applications, ranging from edge to cloud, to easily embed zero trust networking inside the solution. Developers can embed secure, programmable, private, application-specific networking into their apps, using the open source Ziti software (Ziti.dev) which NetFoundry built and is the leading contributor to.
Why is your organization adopting an open source approach?
NetFoundry is built on open source Ziti. The next paradigm in networking is “Networking as code” and zero trust. With open source Ziti SDKs, developers can embed private networking into apps with a few lines of code. Ziti enables a new networking paradigm that greatly reduces the costs and simplifies the complexity of networking and implements zero-trust application embedded connectivity. Ziti is the leading open source platform for creating zero trust network connectivity over the Internet.
Why did you join LF Edge and what sort of impact do you think it has on the industry?
We believe open source communities have the power to shape technologies and markets. In addition to LF Edge, we are members of the Linux Foundation, EdgeX Foundry, and CNCF communities.
What do you see as the top benefits of being part of the LF Edge community?
Accelerating the next paradigm in networking where networking as code and zero trust become ubiquitous. We believe networking will be transformed with cloud-orchestrated interoperability fueled by open source communities like LF Edge.
What contributions has your team made (or plans to make) to the community/ecosystem through LF Edge participation?
NetFoundry built and is the leading contributor to open source Ziti software, and we are excited to build the open Ziti community. NetFoundry is contributing code to open Ziti regularly.
What do you think sets LF Edge apart from other industry alliances?
You are able to draw on the Linux Foundation and related ecosystem of communities and contributors – there is a massive and unstoppable network effect created by LF Edge.
How might LF Edge help your business?
Accelerate the development of the Ziti project and community.
What advice would you give to someone considering joining the LF Edge community?
Don’t wait – do it today.
Learn more about NetFoundry here.
Learn more about open Ziti here.
Get started with Ziti on GitHub.
To find out more about our members or how to join LF Edge, click here. Additionally, if you have questions or comments, visit the LF Edge Slack to share your thoughts and engage with community members.
